IAETSD JOURNAL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH IN APPLIED SCIENCES, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 2, JULY /2017

ISSN (ONLINE): 2394-8442

FREE SPACE OPTICAL COMMUNICATION

K.SASIREKHA
ECE DEPARTMENT, III YEAR, MANAKULA VINAYAGAR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, PUDUCHERRY.
Sasisinthu5@gmail.com

ABSTRACT.

We are in the world of networks where people are not in a position to wait for even a
second .If it takes more time to receive a message it becomes frustrating so transmitting the data in such a
tremendous speed is the main challenge now days the researchers are facing .There are many types to
transmit the data currently we are using radio waves to transmit the data but there are many issues in this
such as bandwidth is not sufficient to fulfil the need for including more number of user and the speed
which is a main issue. This can be overcome by using light which travels much faster than current radio
waves and it is more secure and more importantly it is very faster in transmitting data. The use of the light
with space as the transmission medium is the latest technology which is very popularly called as the free
space optical communication (FSO) with the help of transceivers .In this paper we try to introduce the
concepts of the free space optical communication network.

Keywords: FSO (Free Space Optical Communication), wireless networks, Fibre optic network.

I. INTRODUCTION
FSO is not a new concept this has been in existence from the 8th century but it has fallen the eyes of the researchers in the recent years only due
to the recent advancement in the optics and communication device technology this is made possible. The transmission of the data in the form of
light through the fibre optical cable is the optical fibre communication. This concept is also similar to that but the only difference is that there we
use cables for transmission but here we use free space such as the vacuum, air or something similar to transmit data .

Infrared light or laser beams are used to transmit the data in recent years. Researchers at German Aerospace centre demonstrated FSO
transmission recently of 1.72 terabits data per second over 10.45 km. Laser beams are also used to transfer the data in space which was tested
and it uses simple transmitter consisting of powerful semiconductor based diode laser the input electrical signal is converted into the optical
signal using optical laser emitter where it is converted into a narrow beam and transmitted into the space in the receiver side the optical signal is
back converted into the original signal with the help of a high sensitive light diode. The Art link system, the only currently available wireless
telecommunication system to support data transfer speeds of this kind. The system is manufactured by the Ryazan State Instrument-Making
Enterprise (RSIE).FSO is a LOS (line of sight) technology, where data, voice, and video communication is achieved with maximum 10Gbps of
data rate by full duplex (bidirectional) connectivity.

The effective system should have the following characteristics:

1. It should have high power levels to travel for long distance.

2. High speed modulation.
3. Low power consumption and easy to install.
4. FSO system should have the ability to operate over a wide temperature range.
5. Should have less maintenance expenditure.

To Cite This Article: K.SASIREKHA,. FREE SPACE OPTICAL COMMUNICATION. Journal for
Advanced Research in Applied Sciences ;Pages: 53-56
54. K.SASIREKHA,. FREE SPACE OPTICAL COMMUNICATION. Journal for Advanced Research in Applied
Sciences; Pages: 53-56

II. HISTORY
It all started in the nineteenth century with the Alexander graham bell that first demonstrated the wireless optical transmission or free space
optical communication system before his demonstration of telephone. Bells free space fibre optic system converted the voice signal into
telephone signal and transmitted with the help of a beam of light in free space as the transmission medium for about 600 feet. He called this
experimental device photo phone. Bell considered this optical technology and not the telephone prominent invention as it transmitted data
without the help of any wires. Although his experiment did not work out in commercial reality it demonstrated the basic principle of optical
communication .It is being used in various fields such as military and defence.

III. WORKING
Optical systems work in the infrared or near infrared region of light and the easiest way to visualize how the work is done is imagine there are
two points interconnected with a fibre optic cable which acts as the transmission medium in optical communication but here we just eliminate it.
The infrared carrier used for transmitting the signal is generated by high power LED or a laser diode. Two parallel beams are used ,one for
transmission and one for reception, taking a standard data ,voice or video signal, converting it to a digital format and transmitting it through free
space. Today modern systems provide network connectivity at a speed of 622 Megabits/sec and beyond with total reliability. The beams are kept
narrow so they do not tend to interfere with the other FSO beams .The receiver detectors are either PIN diodes or avalanche photodiodes.

Fig-1 FSO SYSTEM

TYPES:

There are three types of optical fibre network.

1. OWNS (Optical Wireless Satellite Networks).

2. OWTNs (Optical Wireless Terrestrial Networks).
3. OWHNs (Optical Wireless Home Networks).

OWSNs (Optical Wireless Satellite Networks):

OWSNs are designed to provide the high bandwidth, optical wireless network access to endusers by making use of satellites, which cover large
areas of the earth. OWSNs establish a global space backbone network with optical links, since satellites can support any terrestrial residents
regardless of topographical limitations as long as a line-of-sight (LOS) space path exists. Therefore, OWNs offer high quality data services even
to isolate areas such an island, a remote farm, a ship on the ocean, an aircraft, and so forth.

1. OWSNs are an alternative for the current wired Internet, especially for over-the-ocean communications that are largely carried through
undersea optical fibre communication systems. OWSNs do not need such communication infrastructure as undersea cables and easily overcome
the obstacles of long distances.
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Sciences; Pages: 53-56

2. With OWSNs, broadband wireless services can be provided even for secluded areas without much difficulty. Internet users who are on a
mobile platform or are remotely located from a town can be provided with broadband data communications, which are hard to achieve with
traditional access network technologies.

OWTNs (Optical Wireless Terrestrial Networks):

OWTNs as known as outdoor FSO networks, establish a point to point and LOS optical wireless connection between two transceivers through
outdoor atmospheric turbulence channels. Due to the LOS requirement, the distance of light propagation through free atmospheric space is from
hundreds of meters up to tens of kilometres. This telecommunication paradigm has great potential for wireless communications and is becoming
an important means for broadband internet access. OWTNs are effective solutions for the last mile or first-mile problems. Even though
optical fibre cables have been widely used, there are still end-users who do not have their own fibre connection to the Fibre to the Home (FTTH)
service. OWTN provides a high bandwidth connection over a large distance for remote end-users (e.g., residents in rural areas).OWTNs are
integrated with wireless radio networks to mitigate the capacity and scalability limitations of Radio Frequency (RF) channels.

OWHNs (Optical Wireless Home Networks):

OWHNs, also known as indoor FSO network, are desirable for wireless broadband communications inside houses and offices. OWHNs are used
to construct a LAN comprised of cells, where each cell is one of the divided spaces in the building. Usually each cell has a base station to which
several terminals are connected with short-range optical wireless links such as infrared and Light Emitting Diode (LED). Unlike radio waves,
infrared and LED beams cannot penetrate walls. Each wireless optical cell should be confined to a room and needs to be connected to an
integrated with a broadband backbone infrastructure. Usually each cell is free from interference from neighbouring cells.

Fig-2: comparison of different networks

ADVANTAGES:

1. It is easy to install at almost all normal locations and it takes less than 30 minutes to do so.
2. It is a flexible network which delivers high speed than the conventional broadband networks.
3. It is highly secured due to its line of sight technology.
4. There is no need for spectrum license or frequency coordination.
5. Electromagnetic and radio- magnetic waves cannot interfere in the FSO system transmission.
6. It has immunity to the radio waves interference.
7. It is transmitted through air and that to in the speed of light so it has high speed.
8. High data rate with error can be obtained.
9. FSO offers dense spatial reuse.
10. Low power usage per transmitted bit.

IV. APPLICATIONS
With the demand for the transmission is increasing there is many field using FSO system. It has several applications in telecom networks where
an optical gap exists between the network core and the network edge. FSO delivers cost effective optical connectivity and faster returns on
investment (ROI) enterprises and service providers. FSO has moved from niche to mainstream as the number of people in corporate world using
the FSO system has been increasing in the recent years.

1. TELECOM NETWORK EXTENSIONS: FSO can be deployed to extend the existing metro ring or to connect the new networks.
2. ENTERPRISE: The flexibility FSO make it easy to establish LAN to LAN connectivity, storage are networks and may more.
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3. LAST MILE CONNECTIVITY: These are the links that reach the end user. They can be deployed in point to point, point to multipoint
connection, ring or mesh connections.
4. FIBRE COMPLEMENT: FSO can be used as the redundant link to back up the fibre optic cable. Most of the business persons who use the
fibre optic cable to connect the two applications to secure their data can use the FSO instead as it very much cost effective and can be safe than
that.
5. ACCESS: FSO can be used for gigabit transmission of data.
6. Bridging wireless local area network (WLAN)
7. It is used in the financial institution, healthcare campus networks, education field. The cost for fibre optical cable transmission in the urban
cities cost around $300,000-$700,000 but instead if we are using FSO system it would hardly cost $15,000-$18,000 for transmission of 155Mbps
which causes a lot of reduction in the amount to be spent.

DISADVANTAGE:

The advantage of FSO is easy to come. But as the medium of the transmission is air for FSO and the light passes through air so the
environmental challenges are unavoidable. Troposphere sphere region is where it happens mostly.

1. PHYSICAL OBSTRUCTION: Since the data is transmitted through the free space and it is a line of sight system the birds, tall trees may
block the beam.
2. SCINTILLATION: The temperature variation may cause fluctuations in amplitude of the signal which results in the image dancing in the
receiver side.
3. GEOMETRIC LOSS: geometric loss which can be called as the optical beam attenuation are induced due to the spreading of the beam and
reduced the power level of signal as it travelled from transmitted end to receiver end.
4. ABSORPTION: absorption is caused by the water molecules present in the atmosphere. The power density is decreased.
5. ATMOSPHERIC TURBULENCE: The atmospheric disturbance happens due to weather and environment structure. It is caused by wind
and convection which mixed the air parcels at different temperatures. This causes fluctuations in the density of air and it leads to the change in
the air refractive index. The scale size of turbulence cell can create different type of effects given below and which would be dominant.
(i)If size of turbulence cell is of larger diameter than optical beam then beam wander would be the dominant effect. Beam wander is explained as
the displacement of the optical beam spot rapidly.
(ii)If size of turbulence cell is of smaller diameter than optical beam then the intensity fluctuation or scintillation of the optical beam is a
dominant one.Turbulence can lead to degradation of the optical beam of transmission. Change in the refractive index causes refraction of beam
at different angle and spreading of optical beam takes place.
6. ATMOSPHERIC ATTENUATION: atmospheric attenuation is the resultant of fog and haze normally. It also depends upon dust and rain. It
is supposed that atmospheric attenuation is wavelength dependent but this is not true. Haze is wavelength dependent. Attenuation at 1550nm is
less than other wavelengths in haze weather condition. Attenuation in fog weather condition is wavelength independent.
7. SCATTERING: scattering phenomena happen when the optical beam and scattered particles collide. It is wavelength dependent phenomenon
where energy of optical beam is not changed. But only directional redistribution of optical energy happens which leads to the reduction in the
intensity of beam for longer distance. Atmospheric attenuation is divided into three types.

(1) Rayleigh scattering which is known as molecule scattering.

(2) Mie scattering which is known as aerosol scattering.
(3) No selective scattering which is known as geometric scattering.

V. CONCLUSION
In this paper we tried to introduce some of the aspects of the FSO system. FSO offers many advantages over existing techniques which can be
either optical or radio or microwave. Less cost and the time required to transmit the data are the main advantage of FSO over other system.
Optical equipment can also be used in FSO system with some modification which does not cost much so it can be adopted easily. Merits of FSO
make it a hot topic but it has some demerits also such as the attenuation which results in the loss of power. Many studies are going in this
perspective to minimize the effect of attenuation by introducing new system design like WDM based FSO system. Different techniques such as
OFDM-FSO, WDM-FSO are new approach to system to improve the system performance with high speed and longer distance. So new
techniques can be designed by combination of these and, by enhancing these techniques, system designing can be improved and the demerits of
FSO system can be reduced to a minimum level.

REFRENCE
1. http://www.laseroptronics.com/index.cfm/id/57-67.html.
2. https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijo/2015/945483/.
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-space_optical_communication.\
4. https://www.slideshare.net/NaveenKumar11/free-space-optical-communication-24572340.
5. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352864816300542.
6. https://www.slideshare.net/DilipPrajapati4/free-space-optics-fso-seminar-report-full.