Outdoor Communication System

Optical Wireless Communication

Vatsal Beria
BITS Pilani, Pilani
f2015162@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

Abstractthis technical review paper discusses unguided
optical communication, i.e. optical wireless communication for
outside applications. The paper defines what is OFC and how it is
increasingly becoming a part of our life. The aspect of OFC that
this paper is concerned with is the outdoor communication. The
needs of outdoor OFC is discussed and how it is becoming a
necessity in todays technology. The evolution of OFC technology
is briefly discussed. The challenges of OFC technology are
discussed which have limited the spread of OFC till now. The
real world application of outdoor OFC is finally discussed to
realise this technologys implementation and its potential growth.
Keywords Optical wireless communication (OFC); Free
space optical (FSO); Radio frequency (RF).
I. INTRODUCTION
Optical wireless communication is unguided optical
communication using visible, infrared or UV wavelengths.
The Outdoor aspect of optical wireless communication (OWC)
is rapidly becoming a vital part of everyday life. Outdoor
communication which majorly consists of high speed data
transmission to a growing consumer base. These consumers
include business owners, residential needs, recreational and
government establishment.
This all doesnt come without OWC having few challenges
of its own. The challenges currently faced by outdoor
communication is of weather adversity, scattering, line of
sight (LOS) alignment and building sway and scintillation.
The current applications of outdoor OWC is mainly
limited to-
i Short Range OWC : WBAN (Wireless body area
network), WPAN (wireless personal area network),
underwater communications.
ii Medium Range OWC : Inter vehicle to vehicle
communication.
iii Long Range OWC : inter-building communication, also
called Free Space Optical-Communication (FSO).
iv Ultra-long Range OWC : inter satellite OWC.
Out of these the major components of outdoor OWC are
Long Range OWC and Ultra-long Range OWC.

Outdoor OWC usually requires a transmitter and a receiver

to set-up. These two components are set up on roof-tops and
other high rise constructions like billboards, bridges etc. or II. NEED OF OUTDOOR OFC
they are part of the satellites who are communicating via
OWC. Outdoor application of OWC dominates its competition
in optical fiber and radio frequency (RF) communication due
its many advantages. These advantages include high
bandwidth, low cost, ease of use etc..
 The high data needs of consumers can be met with the use
of optical fibers, which has been distributed all around the
world to connect cities and continents. However, the last
mile, which refers to the final leg of the communication
network that deliver the services to retail end-users, poses a
challenge. It is not possible or practical to lay down optical
fibers for the last mile as it is both time-consuming and
costly. Radio frequencies arent used because they carry heavy
licensing fees and tariffs. The bureaucracy involved for
obtaining permits can take months. There is also a major
health concern with prolonged exposure to radiofrequency
radiation. Outdoor OWC solves this problem for the
communication network. An optical wireless communication
system can provide the transmission capacity of fiber links
with lightweight equipments that can be installed in a day.
There is also no overhead licensing fees required.
The high security of OWC is of exceptional importance, as
the extremely directional, narrow beam optical link makes
hacking or jamming into the system nearly impossible. This is
why outdoor OWC finds a great use in military and secure
connection needs.
Furthermore, with the many advances in optical
communication technology. OWC is predicted to be a very
effective cost-effective alternative.
III. EVOLUTION OF OUTDOOR OWC
The advent of OWC has been one of the most significant
phenomena in the history of technology. Signaling through
smoke and fire torches can be said to be the earliest form of
OWC. Laser invention pioneered the development of OWC.
Different modulation schemes and lasers testing has resulted
in the OWC technology we know now.
IV. CHALLENGES TO OUTDOOR OFC
As discussed earlier in the introduction, there are quite a
few challenges to outdoor OFC. The challenges can be
condensed to 3 following major ones:
i Adverse Weather Conditions : Weather conditions
affects very negatively to OFC. Water particles and carbon
dioxide in the air absorbs the optical signal. Hence, a lot of
attenuation is observed due to this. Scattering takes place in
presence of fog and haze. Rain and snow are also culprits of
scattering in the transmission. This leads to deflection of the
optical signal away from the intended receiver. This of course
leads to severe data loss. These challenges have been solved or
weakened to some extent by continuous research. One of the
ways is to transmit data at various frequency bands, in order to
allow an efficient receptions. Another one of the solution was
researched by Kedar and Anon. They found a way to use the
scattering to enhance the performance of the link. They
capture the scattered light when the original unscattered light
is not received. This is achieved by increasing the field of
view (FOV) of the receiver by increasing the number of
detectors.
ii Line Of Sight Alignment : This challenge is quite self -
explanatory. This occurs when the receiver and the transmitter
are not in the line of sight of each other which leads to null
transmission. This misalignment can be a result of lot of
factors. Heavy winds can sometimes sway the high rise
buildings laterally due to torsion. Weak earthquakes can also
cause the same. The solution to this challenge was proposed
by Izadpanah et al; who suggested auto-beam tracking
capabilities of the system. Also suggesting to increase the
optical power of the transmission.
iii Scintillation : The rise of heated air from earth or some
man-made devices causes temperature difference between
different air pockets. This movement of air causes fluctuation
in the received signal. To counter this challenge a larger
photodiode can be used, which reduces the wavefront
distortion of the optimal signal caused by scintillation.
 iv Harm to Eyes : The cornea is transparent to
wavelengths across infrared to near violet. The eyelids, hence,
wont shut when a beam is focused on the retina as they do
when visible light is shined. This would result in thermal
damage to the retina. This challenge is dealt by having
systems with high-powered lasers located where they cant be
viewed accidentally by the public.
V. CURRENT COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS
The application of outdoor OFC is limited to medium, long
and Extra-long OWC.
i Medium long OWC : Outdoor OWC is applied in street
lamps and traffic lights which uses the VLC technology. VLC
is also helpful in underwater application. The traditional
acoustic communication used in underwater falls short to
OWC which has superior data speed for short range.
ii Long range OWC : FSO (Free Space Optical) is used
for high rate communication between two fixed points over
distances of several kilometers. This is the most suitable Last
mile solution yet as it provides extremely high data rates and
eliminating the need for heavy equipment and licensing costs.
FSO is also applied for cellular backhauls, wireless
metropolitan area network (WMAN), WLAN-to-WLAN
connection service to business or academic establishments,
broadband access to far-away areas and wireless video
monitoring and surveillance. FSO is also useful in disaster
situations as they are so easy to install and re-deployable.
Research is already active in deployment of FSO links to non-
stationary points like airplane-to-airplane, airport-to-ground
etc. FSO is also already in use and still being developed for
military purpose.
iii. Ultra-Long Range OWC: FSO can be used for ultra-
long, more than 10000 kms, distances like ground-to-satellite,
satellite-to-satellite and even intra-planet communication. The
data rates can be in Gbps which has already been tested
numerous times.

VI. CONCLUSION
Optical Wireless Communication is this still widely
unexplored especially its outdoor application. There are a lot
of interesting application of OFC that are coming up and will
continue to do so. It is also quickly becoming an alternative to
optical fibre and RF communication especially its application
to the last mile challenge. The challenges to outdoor OFC
was discussed which has limited its application in the real
world although the solution to those challenges are quickly
happening. FSO technology is already having a strong
foothold in the current scheme of things and is continuing to
grow due its potential in ultra long range communication. At
last, OFC shows a lot of potential for the future.
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