Holographic parabolic mirror as a receiver optical front end for wireless infrared communications: experimental study

The inherent multifunctionality of holographic optical elements and their light physical weight make them an attractive solution for the receiver optics of portable terminals in indoor infrared wireless communication systems. A parabolic holographic mirror has been recorded in silver halide at a visible wavelength, and its replay wavelength has been shifted to the near infrared. Employment of proprietary swelling technology resulted in a permanent replay wavelength shift without the need for hologram sealing. Despite the relatively low diffraction efficiency of holograms recorded in silver halide in principle, an improvement in the receiver signal-to-noise ratio of more than 20 dB has been measured. The results of the conducted experiments proved undoubtedly the great potential of curved holographic mirrors as a key element of the receiver optical front end in IR wireless communication systems.     

Holographic interference filters for infrared communications

We demonstrate that high-quality interference filters for the wavelength range 1300-1600 nm can be holographically fabricated in DuPont HRF-800X001 photopolymer material by use of visible laser illumination. We also summarize a chain-matrix technique, which we call thin-film decomposition, that is useful for modeling multilayer films with an arbitrary index profile n(z). We use the thin-film-decomposition technique to create design curves that allow one to choose the proper exposure angle and film thickness with which to fabricate a holographic interference filter with a desired transmission efficiency and bandwidth at a particular wavelength. These curves are of general utility and are not confined to any particular holographic recording medium. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment is found.     

Recent developments in indoor optical wireless [Optical wireless communications]

An overview of the developments in optical wireless systems viewed from the traditional communications viewpoint of transmitter, channel and receiver is presented. The trends in modulation formats that match information to the optical wireless channel are considered. This is followed by the discussion of recent transmitter and receiver innovations, particularly the utilisation of diversity transceivers. As a preliminary to the following treatment, the nature and modelling of the optical wireless channel are introduced, with particular emphasis on its unique features in terms of transmitted power constraints and non-negativity. From the examination of modulation formats, on-off-keying remains the format of choice for basic binary transmission, whereas pulse-position modulation and its derivatives are preferred for more sophisticated requirements. The recent introduction of techniques from radio systems employing subcarriers is seen to be the most promising development in modulation techniques at present. In receiver technology, quasi-diffuse systems employing multispot diffusion and angular diversity are significant developments. They offer lower path loss and less multipath dispersion, at a lower transmission power compared to 'conventional' wide-angle diffuse systems, while providing a high level of user mobility compared to line-of-sight transmission. These developments are helping optical wireless systems to fulfil their promise by adopting a philosophy inspired by the radio domain to accommodate operation within a hostile channel.     

Multi-user adaptive orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing system for indoor wireless optical communications

An adaptive orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system is proposed for multi-user communications over indoor wireless optical channels. The designed system uses multi-user least-squares detection techniques applied to space-division multiple access and OFDM schemes, in conjunction with angle-diversity reception. The system, which does not present an excessive increase in complexity with respect to the previous schemes, can support high bit rates for multiple users, beyond 100 Mbits/s. It also mitigates the channel fluctuations induced when either the space distribution or the number of emitters and receivers varies. The performance of the new proposed scheme is compared with that of a non-adaptive multi-user system and an adaptive single-user system, both described in the previous works, when they face similar environmental situations. The obtained results show a significant enhancement with respect to both the previous multi-user system and the adaptive single-user one, since the new scheme allows adaptively managing the system throughput on a multi-user environment     

Adaptive code-division multiple-access system for communications over indoor wireless optical channels based on random optical codes

The authors have designed an adaptive optical codes-based system for communications over the indoor wireless optical channel when large numbers of users access to the channel simultaneously. This system uses a code-division multiple access (CDMA) scheme based on the named random optical codes (ROC). The authors present the characteristics of this kind of optical codes and several results about its performance over noisy indoor wireless optical channels. Finally, the authors describe a CDMA system which adapts its performance to the number of users which are accessing simultaneously to the channel. The proposed system is able to maintain a target bit error rate adapting its data throughput independently of the number of simultaneous users in the optical environment, whenever certain conditions are accomplished.     

Low-complexity iterative equalisation and decoding for wireless optical communications [optical wireless communications]

A low-complexity scheme of iterative equalisation and decoding by combining a recursive systematic convolutional code and a pulse-position modulation is proposed here. A graph- based equalisation for intersymbol interference (ISI) known at both transmitter and receiver is considered. By representing the memory channel with ISI as the factor graph and applying sum-product (SP) algorithm to this graph, a posteriori probability (APP) of the desired symbol necessary to implement iterative equalisation and decoding is derived. A partial response precoding is used to reduce the span of ISI from a possible infinite number of two baud periods. This precoding scheme makes the factor graph of memory channel cycle-free, and SP algorithm for combating ISI converges to an optimum detection. Numerical results show that the proposed low-complexity strategy has almost the same performance as the optimum turbo equalisation.     

Link design for nondirected wireless infrared communications

We optimize the design of a short-range communication system using nondirected line-of-sight IR radiation. We propose a receiver structure comprising a spherical thin-film optical filter and a truncated spherical lens that can significantly outperform an optimized planar-filter system. We can make the passband of the spherical filter arbitrarily narrow without constraining the field of view by using an arbitrarily large filter radius. We argue that a truncation angle of 90° maximizes the receiver field of view when a spherical filter is used. We jointly optimize the transmitter radiation pattern and receiver optical components. Numerical results show that 269 mW of transmitted signal power is sufficient to achieve 100 Mbit/s throughout a 4-m-radius cell with high background irradiance.     

Investigation of the baseline wander effect on indoor optical wireless system employing digital pulse interval modulation [optical wireless communications]

In indoor optical wireless communication (OWC) systems, ambient lights in particular fluorescent lamps introduce a periodic interference signal, which has the potential to severely degrade link performance. One of the simplest techniques often used to mitigate the interference from artificial sources of ambient light is electrical high-pass filtering (HPF). However, HPF introduces baseline wander (BLW), which is more severe for modulation techniques that contain a significant amount of power located at DC and low frequencies. In this paper the effects of BLW on systems employing digital pulse interval modulation (DPIM) are extensively investigated. Also investigated are the effects of cut-on frequency of the HPF on the optical power requirement and power penalty for different bit rates, where results are compared with the more established techniques of on-off keying (OOK) with a non-return to zero signalling and pulse position modulation (PPM). The optimum HPF cut-on frequency, which minimises the overall power penalty, is estimated. It is shown that at high data bit rates (100 Mbps), DPIM power requirement is considerably lower (~5 dB) than OOK and similar to that of PPM.     

Evaluation of coverage area for a wide line-of-sight indoor optical free-space communication system employing coherent detection [optical wireless communications]

The application of coherent detection to indoor optical free-space communications is considered here. Analytical expressions are derived for a wide line-of-sight (W-LOS) optical link which determine the coverage area and the required photo-detection area given different binary digital transmission schemes and a given bit rate. The coverage area is maximised for systems using both metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) and PIN photo-detectors. Results show that MSM photo-detectors, due to their inherently lower capacitance per unit photo-detection area, result in a greater coverage area than their PIN counterparts. To demonstrate the viability of implementing coherent detection indoors, a 200 Mb/s LOS optical link which uses coherent detection is also reported.     

Design and evaluation of a high data rate optical wireless system for the diffuse indoor channel using barker spreading codes and RAKE reception [optical wireless communications]

The performance of a high data rate optical wireless system (OWS) over the diffuse indoor infrared channel based on direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) techniques is highly sensitive to the properties of the aperiodic autocorrelation function and the spreading factor of the spreading sequence used. Ideally, the aperiodic autocorrelation function should have zero sidelobes in order to eliminate intersymbol interference caused by multipath propagation. In practice, such an ideal sequence does not exist in the binary field when data modulation is applied. For high data rates, a small spreading factor is desired in order to avoid an excessive system bandwidth. The family of Barker sequences is investigated in a DSSS-OWS. The Barker sequences are binary spreading sequences which exhibit small aperiodic autocorrelation values and short spreading factors. The system bit error rate (BER) performance is characterized on the diffuse indoor infrared channel when using RAKE reception. Results of BER against Eh/NQ are presented with data rate and spreading factor as parameters. The results demonstrate that of the seven Barker sequences existing, the length three Barker sequence {0 0 1} provides the best system design trade-off in respect of good BER performance and low implementation complexity.     

Performance of differential pulse-position modulation (DPPM) with concatenated coding over optical wireless communications [optical wireless communications]

The concatenation of marker and Reed-Solomon codes in order to correct insertion/ deletion errors in differential pulse-position modulation (DPPM) over optical wireless communications is presented. The concatenated code decoding algorithms with hard-decision and soft-decision detection are presented. The performance of the hard-decision coded DPPM system is evaluated over both nondispersive and dispersive channels via analysis and simulation. It is shown that the coding gain provided by the concatenated code is approximately 4 dB when the code rate is about 0.7 and the channel is nondispersive. Over a dispersive channel, the coded system performs better than the uncoded system when the ratio of delay spread to bit duration is not high. A soft-decision detector is employed to combat intersymbol interference. The soft- decision decoding algorithm, which has low complexity and can be practically implemented, is described. The performance over nondispersive and dispersive channels is evaluated by analysis and simulation. It is shown that the soft-decision system requires approximately 2 dB less transmit power than the hard-decision system for additive white Gaussian noise and low-dispersive channels. Soft decoding also provides a performance improvement in high-dispersive channels.     

Look-up table error correcting multiple pulse PPM codes for wireless optical communication channels [optical wireless communications]

Performance of optical wireless communication (OWC) systems can be optimised using constant optical power transmission in conjunction with forward error control coding. A new family of constant power error correcting codes using multiple pulse position modulation optical transmission are introduced. This doubly featured technique may extend the capability of many difficult wireless optical links beyond their existing barriers and may enable a higher error performance for OWC networks. The potential and design of look-up table codes are investigated. The Monte Carlo methods provide supportive data for the performance and code word search.     

Two-dimensional binary halftoned optical intensity channels [optical wireless communications]

The capacity of two-dimensional (2D) optical intensity channels in which transmit images are constrained to be binary-level has been considered. Examples of such links exist in holographic storage, page-oriented memories, optical interconnects, 2D barcodes as well as multiple-input/multiple-output wireless optical links. Data are transmitted by sending a series of time-varying binary-level optical intensity images from transmitter to receiver. Neither strict spatial alignment between transmitter and receiver nor independence among the spatial channels is required. The approach combines spatial discrete multitone modulation developed for spatially frequency selective channels with halftoning to produce a binary-level output image. Data are modulated in spatial frequency domain as dictated by a water pouring spectrum over the optical transfer function as well as channel and quantisation noise. A binary-level output image is produced by exploiting the excess spatial bandwidth available at the transmitter to shape quantisation noise out of band. A general mathematical framework has been presented, in which such systems can be analysed and designed. In a pixelated wireless optical channel application, halftoning achieves 99.8% of the capacity of an equivalent unconstrained continuous amplitude channel using lmegapixel arrays.     

Compact wideband antenna for wireless communications

A compact dual-band printed wire antenna for applications in wireless communications is presented. An additional shorted parasitic element to the F-shaped wire antenna is introduced to achieve a dual-band operation. As an example, a new antenna was designed and fabricated for wireless local area network applications that operate in the 2.4 and 5.2/5.8 GHz bands. The prototyped antenna offered two separate measured impedance bandwidths of 700 (2.35-3.05 GHz) and 2150 MHz (3.95-6.1 GHz), for a return loss less than -10 dB. A measured antenna gain of 1.78-1.9 dBi was observed across the lower band, whereas a measured antenna gain of 3.9-4.4 dBi was observed across the upper band. The measured radiation patterns were stable across the passband     

Experimental implementation of fiber optic bundle array wide FOV free space optical communications receiver

A gimbal-free wide field-of-regard (FOR) optical receiver has been built in a laboratory setting for proof-of-concept testing. Multiple datasets are presented that examine the overall FOR of the system and the receiver's ability to track and collect a signal from a moving source. The design is not intended to compete with traditional free space optical communication systems, but rather offer an alternative design that minimizes the number and complexity of mechanical components required at the surface of a small mobile platform. The receiver is composed of a micro-lens array and hexagonal bundles of large core optical fibers that route the optical signal to remote detectors and electronics. Each fiber in the bundle collects power from a distinct solid angle of space and a piezo-electric transducer is used to translate the micro-lens array and optimize coupling into a given fiber core in the bundle. The micro-lens to fiber bundle design is scalable, modular, and can be replicated in an array to increase aperture size.     

一种新颖的水声相干通信接收算法

为了克服水声信道的多径衰落,消除码间干扰,获得可靠的数据传输,提出了一种新颖的水声相干通信接收算法。该新型算法有两个优点:一是将自适应判决反馈均衡器和迭代译码技术相结合,二是译码采用Turbo译码原理,整个译码系统可以看作是串联迭代译码器,只是其中的内部译码器被编码比特对数似然率(LLR)计算器所取代,有效地降低了运算复杂度。同时,自适应判决反馈均衡器采用了变步长因子算法,改善了均衡器的收敛速度。仿真实验验证了该组合接收算法的性能     

Opportunity identification for product design innovation front end

With the development and evolution of consumer culture, product meaning becomes a more and more important factor for consumers to choose what to buy in similar products. In view of the existing research for opportunity identification confined to user needs or technology development or both of the two factors, combined with the designer's guiding effect for product design innovation, the process of product design innovation front end opportunity identification was established, which was based on three factors like the product meaning, technology development and customer needs. The process of opportunity identification was as follows, the first step was to divide the user group by some standards, and then studying the user group needs respectively, choosing the key product technologies and analyzing their status, and analyzing product meaning influencing factors, according to the factors metioned above to identify the target user group and the product design objective for the group, the second step was to classify and arrange the target group needs, the key product technologies' status and product meaning expressions as the clues of product design innovation opportunity, the third step was to transform the opportunity clues which were classified and arranged in the previous step into innovation opportunities by using a variety of innovative tools and innovative thinking integration, and at last according to the constrains of the innovation opportunities which were obtained by the group needs, the key product technologies' status and product meaning clues, incorporating with the corporate philosophy, fund allocation and transfer and other factors, to choose couple of opportunities to be the opportunity program, which might be more suitable for the enterprise development. Finally, the opportunity identification for product design innovation front end process is verified by the example of the nail gun. The process has achieved the design-driven, the market-driven and technology-driven opportunity recognition, and it meets customer demand, adapts to the technology development and expresses the meaning of product at the same time, which provides solution for evolutionary and upgrade of products.     

Silicon infrared diffuser for wireless communication

We show what we believe to be a novel way to use silicon in infrared radio communication as a suitable material for the realization of optical diffusers in the range of 850-1600 nm. A crystalline silicon wafer is made porous by means of electrochemical etching. The porous silicon produced is optically characterized, and measurements report a high reflectance in the band of interest. We also study the angular distribution of diffused radiation by the porous silicon surface at different angles of incident radiation. Measurements show that radiation diffuses in a quasi-Lambertian manner, confirming the good performance of this material as an incident radiation diffuser.     

Power-saving mechanisms for mobile devices in wireless communications

In wireless communications, a sleep mode is commonly used to save power for mobile stations (MS). When there is no traffic to transmit, an MS periodically switches to sleep mode. Obviously, the performance of a power-saving mechanism depends on its sleep mode scheduling algorithm and the traffic characteristics of the user. In real systems, the power-saving mechanism of IEEE802.11 WLAN uses a constant sleep interval, and the IEEE802.16e WMAN adopts one with truncated exponentially extending sleep intervals denoted by PS-16, which contains constant sleep intervals as special cases. The two mechanisms are compared, resulting in the, finding that in the case of Poisson traffic, they have the same performance; whereas in the case of non-Poisson traffic PS-16 has better performance. For non-Poisson traffic, the performance of PS-16 lacks a closed form expression, which makes its design challenging. The authors propose to approximate the idle durations of an MS by hyper-exponentials, based on which an online sleep mode scheduling algorithm is developed. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.