Free Space Optical Communication

Seminar report submitted for the award of the Degree of

Bachelor of Technology
in

Electronics and Communication Engineering

of Siksha o Anusandhan University

by

Sweta Mohanty

Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering Institute of Technical Education & Research Siksha o Anusandhan University, Bhubaneswar - 751030

September,2013

DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the report entitled Free Space Optical Communication submitted to Siksha o Anusandhan University for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering is absolutely based on my own literature review and extensive survey. Wherever contributions of others are involved, every effort has been made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the literature. I also declare that this report in the present form has not been submitted for award of any degree or diploma or any other academic award anywhere else before.

Sweta Mohanty Reg. No.: 1011016060, Section: E Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

ABSTRACT
Free Space Optics (FSO) or Optical Wireless, refers to the transmission of modulated visible or infrared (IR) beams through the air to obtain optical communications. Like fiber, Free Space Optics (FSO) uses lasers to transmit data, but instead of enclosing the data stream in a glass fiber, it is transmitted through the air. It is a secure, cost-effective alternative to other wireless connectivity options. This form of delivering communication has a lot of compelling advantages.

Data rates comparable to fiber transmission can be carried with very low error rates, while the extremely narrow laser beam widths ensure that it is possible to colocate multiple transceivers without risk of mutual interference in a given location. FSO has roles to play as primary access medium and backup technology. It could also be the solution for high speed residential access. Though this technology sprang into being, its applications are wide and many. It indeed is the technology of the future...

Keywords: Free space Optics(FSO), Infrared, Optical Communication, Data rates, Error rates.

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CONTENTS
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................... i ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................... ii CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................................... iii (Free Space Optical Communication) ............................................................................................ 5 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 5 Free Space Optics ................................................................................................................ 6 Relevance of FSO in Present Day Communication ............................................................. 7 Origin of FSO ...................................................................................................................... 8 The Technology of FSO ...................................................................................................... 8 The Working of FSO system ............................................................................................... 9 Block Diagram of FSO ...................................................................................................... 10 7.1 The Transmitter .......................................................................................................... 11 7.2 The Atmospheric Channel .......................................................................................... 12 7.3 The Receiver ............................................................................................................... 15 8. Architectures of FSO ......................................................................................................... 17 8.1 Point to Point Architecture ......................................................................................... 17 8.2 Mesh Architecture ...................................................................................................... 17 8.3 Point to Multi-Point Architecture ............................................................................... 18 9. 10. 11. 12. FSO Security...................................................................................................................... 18 Merits of FSO .................................................................................................................... 20 Applications of FSO .......................................................................................................... 21 Challenges of FSO ............................................................................................................. 22 12.1 Fog ............................................................................................................................ 22
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12.2 Physical Obstruction ................................................................................................. 22 12.3 Scintillation ............................................................................................................... 22 12.4 Solar Interference...................................................................................................... 23 12.5 Scattering .................................................................................................................. 23 12.6 Absorption ............................................................................................................... 24 12.7 Building Sway/Seismic ............................................................................................ 24 13. 14. 15. FSO! as a Future Technology ............................................................................................ 25 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 26 References.......................................................................................................................... 27

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Free Space Optical Communication

1. INTRODUCTION

Communication, as it has always been relied and simply depended upon speed. The faster the means! The more popular, the more effective the

communication is! Presently in the twenty-first century wireless networking is gaining because of speed and ease of deployment and relatively high network robustness. Modern era of optical communication originated with the invention of LASER in 1958 and fabrication of low-loss optical fiber in 1970.

When we hear of optical communications we all think of optical fibers, what we have today is AN OPTICAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM WITHOUT FIBERS or in other words WIRE FREE OPTICS. Free space optics or FSO Although it only recently and rather suddenly sprang in to public awareness, free space optics is not a new idea. It has roots that 90 back over 30 years-to the era before fiber optic cable became the preferred transport medium for high speed communication. FSO technology has been revived to offer high band width last mile connectivity for todays converged network requirements.

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2. FSO! FREE SPACE OPTICS

Free space optics or FSO, free space photonics or optical wireless, refers to the transmission of modulated visible or infrared beams through the atmosphere to obtain optical communication. FSO systems can function over distances of several kilometers.

FSO is a line-of-sight technology, which enables optical transmission up to 2.5 Gbps of data, voice and video communications, allowing optical connectivity without deploying fiber optic cable or securing spectrum licenses. Free space optics require light, which can be focused by using either light emitting diodes (LED) or LASERS(light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). The use of lasers is a simple concept similar to optical transmissions using fiber-optic cables, the only difference being the medium.

As long as there is a clear line of sight between the source and the destination and enough transmitter power, communication is possible virtually at the speed of light. Because light travels through air faster than it does through glass, so it is fair to classify FSO as optical communications at the speed of light. FSO works on the same basic principle as infrared television remote controls, wireless keyboards or wireless palm devices.

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3. RELEVANCE OF FSO IN PRESENT DAY COMMUNICATION

Presently we are facing with a burgeoning demand for high bandwidth and differentiated data services. Network traffic doubles every 9-12 months forcing the bandwidth or data storing capacity to grow and keep pace with this increase. The right solution for the pressing demand is the untapped bandwidth potential of optical communications.

Optical communications are in the process of evolving Giga bits/sec to terabits/sec and eventually to pentabits/sec. The explosion of internet and internet based applications has fuelled the bandwidth requirements. Business applications have grown out of the physical boundaries of the enterprise and gone wide area linking remote vendors, suppliers, and customers in a new web of business applications. Hence companies are looking for high bandwidth last mile options. The high initial cost and vast time required for installation in case of OFC speaks for a wireless technology for high bandwidth last mile connectivity there FSO finds its place.

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4. ORIGIN OF FSO
It is said that this mode of communication was first used in the 8 th century by the Greeks. They used fire as the light source, the atmosphere as the transmission medium and human eye as receiver.

FSO or optical wireless communication by Alexander Graham Bell in the late 19th century even before his telephone! Bells FSO experiment converted voice sounds to telephone signals and transmitted them between receivers through free air space along a beam of light for a distance of some 600 feet, this was later called PHOTOPHONE. Although Bells photo phone never became a commercial reality, it demonstrated the basic principle of optical communications.

Essentially all of the engineering of todays FSO or free space optical communication systems was done over the past 40 years or so mostly for defense applications.

5. THE TECHNOLOGY OF FSO

The concept behind FSO is simple. FSO uses a directed beam of light radiation between two end points to transfer information (data, voice or even video). This is similar to OFC (optical fiber cable) networks, except that light pulses are sent through free air instead of OFC cores.

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An FSO unit consists of an optical transceiver with a laser transmitter and a receiver to provide full duplex (bi-directional) capability. Each FSO unit uses a high power optical source (laser) plus a lens that transmits light through the atmosphere to another lens receiving information. The receiving lens connects to a high sensitivity receiver via optical fiber. Two FSO units can take the optical connectivity to a maximum of 4kms.

6. WORKING OF FSO SYSTEM

Optical systems work in the infrared or near infrared region of light and the easiest way to visualize how the work is imagine, two points interconnected with fiber optic cable and then remove the cable. The infrared carrier used for transmitting the signal is generated either by a 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.

Todays modern laser system provide network connectivity at speed of 622 Mega bits/sec and beyond with total reliability. The beams are kept very narrow to ensure that it does not interfere with other FSO beams. The receive detectors are either PIN diodes or avalanche photodiodes.

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The FSO transmits invisible eye safe light beams from transmitter to the receiver using low power infrared lasers in the tera hertz spectrum. FSO can function over kilometers.

WAVELENGTH:
Currently available FSO hardware is of two types based on the operating wavelength 800 nm and 1550 nm. 1550 FSO systems are selected because of more eye safety, reduced solar background radiation and compatibility with existing technology infrastructure.

7. FSO BLOCK DIAGRAM

The block diagram of a typical terrestrial FSO link is shown below. Like any other communication technology, an FSO system essentially comprises the following three parts: transmitter, channel and receiver. Further discussion of each of these blocks is given below.

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7.1 The transmitter

This functional block has the primary duty of modulating the source data onto the optical carrier, which is then propagated through the atmosphere to the receiver. The most widely used modulation type is the intensity modulation (IM), in which the source data is modulated onto the irradiance of the optical radiation. This is achieved by varying the driving current of the optical source directly in sympathy with the data to be transmitted or via an external modulator, such as the symmetric MachZehnder interferometer. The use of an external modulator guarantees a higher data rate than direct modulation, but an external modulator has a nonlinear response. Other properties of the radiated optical field such as its phase, frequency and state of polarisation can also be modulated with data/information through the use of an external modulator. The transmitter telescope collects, collimates and directs the optical radiation towards the receiver telescope at the other end of the channel.
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7.2 The atmospheric channel

An optical communications channel differs from the conventional Gaussiannoise channel in that the signal x(t) represents power rather than amplitude. This leads to two constraints on the transmitted signal: i) x(t) must be non-negative; and ii) the average value of x(t) must not exceed a specified maximum power Pmax, that is . In contrast to the conventional channels, where the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is proportional to the power, in optical systems the received electrical power and the variance of the shot noise are proportional to Ad2 and Ad, respectively, where Ad is the receiver detector area. Thus, for a shot noise limited optical system, the SNR is proportional to Ad. This implies that for a given transmitted power, a higher SNR can be attained by using a large area detector. However, as Ad increases so does its capacitance, which has a limiting effect on the receiver bandwidth. The atmospheric channel consists of gases, and aerosols tiny particles suspended in the atmosphere. Also present in the atmosphere are rain, haze, fog and other forms of precipitation. The amount of precipitation present in the atmosphere depends on the location (longitude and latitude) and the season. The highest concentration of particles is obviously near the Earth surface within the troposphere and this decreases with increasing altitude up through to the ionosphere. With the size distribution of the atmospheric constituents ranging from sub-micrometres to centimetres, an optical field that traverses the atmosphere is scattered and/or absorbed resulting in power loss.

Another feature of interest is the atmospheric turbulence. When radiation strikes the Earth from the Sun, some of the radiation is ab sorbed by the Earths
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surface thereby heating up its (Earths) surface air mass. The resulting mass of warm and lighter air then rises up to mix turbulently with the surrounding cooler air mass. This culminates in small (in the range of 0.01 to 0.1 degrees) but spatially and temporally fluctuating atmospheric temperature. The temperature inhomogeneity of the atmosphere causes corresponding changes in the index of refraction of the atmosphere, resulting in eddies, cells or air packets having varying sizes from ~0.1 cm to ~10 m. These air packets act like refractive prisms of varying indices of refraction. The propagating optical radiation is therefore fully or partially deviated depending on the relative size of the beam and the degree of temperature inhomogeneity along its path. Consequently the optical radiation traversing the turbulent atmosphere experiences random variation/fading in its irradiance (scintillation) and phase. Familiar effects of turbulence are the twinkling of stars caused by random fluctuations of stars. irradiance, and the shimmer of the horizon on a hot day caused by random changes in the optical phase of the light beam resulting in reduced image resolution .Atmospheric turbulence depends on i) atmospheric pressure/altitude, ii) wind speed, and iii) variation of index of refraction due to temperature inhomogeneity.

Known effects of atmospheric turbulence include:-

a) Beam steering Angular deviation of the beam from its original LOS causing the beam to miss the receiver. b) Image dancing The received beam focus moves in the image plane due to variations in the beam.s angle of arrival.
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c) Beam spreading Increased beam divergence due to scattering. This leads to a reduction in received power density. d) Beam scintillation Variations in the spatial power density at the receiver plane caused by small scale destructive interference within the optical beam. e) Spatial coherence degradation Turbulence also induces losses in phase coherence across the beam phase fronts. This is particularly deleterious for photomixing (e.g. in coherent receiver) . f) Polarisation fluctuation This results from changes in the state of polarisation of the received optical field after passing through a turbulent medium. However for a horizontally travelling optical radiation, the amount of polarisation fluctuation is negligible.

The modelling of the fluctuation of an optical radiation traversing a turbulent atmosphere will be examined in Chapter Four, with the view to understanding the statistical behaviour of the signal received at the receiver plane.

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7.3 The receiver

This essentially helps recover the transmitted data from the incident optical field. The receiver is composed of the following:a) Receiver telescope collects and focuses the incoming optical radiation onto the photodetector. It should be noted that a large receiver telescope aperture is desirable as it collects multiple uncorrelated radiations and focuses their average on the photodetector. This is referred to as aperture averaging but a wide aperture also means more background radiation/noise. b) Optical bandpass filter to reduce the amount of background radiation. c) Photodetector p-i-n diode (PIN) or avalanche photodiode (APD) that converts the incident optical field into an electrical signal. Germanium only detectors are generally not used in FSO because of their high dark current. d) Post-detection processor/decision circuit this is where the required amplification, filtering and signal processing necessary to guarantee a high fidelity data recovery are carried out.

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FSO TRANSMITTER

FSO RECEIVER

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8. FSO ARCHITECTURES
8.1 POINT-TO-POINT ARCHITECTURE
Point-to-point architecture is a dedicated connection that offers higher bandwidth but is less scalable .In a point-to-point configuration, FSO can support speeds between 155Mbits/sec and 10Gbits/sec at a distance of 2 kilometers (km) to 4km. Access claims it can deliver 10Gbits/ sec. Terabeam can provide up to 2Gbits/sec now, while AirFiber and Lightpointe have promised Gigabit Ethernet capabilities sometime in 2001..

8.2 MESH ARCHITECTURE

Mesh architectures may offer redundancy and higher reliability with easy node addition but restrict distances more than the other options.

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A meshed configuration can support 622Mbits/sec at a distance of 200 meters (m) to 450m. TeraBeam claims to have successfully tested 160Gbit/sec speeds in its lab, but such speeds in the real world are surely a year or two off.

8.3 POINT-.TO-MULTIPOINT ARCHITECTURE

Point-to-multipoint architecture offers cheaper connections and facilitates node addition but at the expense of lower bandwidth than the point-to-point option.

In a point-to-multipoint arrangement, FSO can support the same speeds as the point-to-point arrangement -155Mbits/sec to 10Gbits/sec-at 1km to 2km.

9. FREE SPACE OPTICS (FSO) SECURITY

Security is an important element of data transmission, irrespective of the network topology. It is especially important for military and corporate applications.
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Building a network on the SONA beam platform is one of the best ways to ensure that data transmission between any two points is completely secure. Its focused transmission beam foils jammers and eavesdroppers and enhances security. Moreover, SONAR systems can use any signal-scrambling technology that optical fiber can use.

The common perception of wireless is that it offers less security than wire line connections. In fact, Free Space Optics (FSO) is far more secure than RF or other wireless-based transmission technologies for several reasons:

Free Space Optics (FSO) laser beams cannot be detected with spectrum analyzers or RF meters. Free Space Optics (FSO) laser transmissions are optical and travel along a line of sight path that cannot be intercepted easily. It requires a matching Free Space Optics (FSO) transceiver carefully aligned to complete the transmission. Interception is very difficult and extremely unlikely. The laser beams generated by Free Space Optics (FSO) systems are narrow and invisible, making them harder to find and even harder to intercept and crack. Data can be transmitted over an encrypted connection adding to the degree of security available in Free Space Optics (FSO) network transmissions.

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10. MERITS OF FSO

1. Free space optics offers a flexible networking solution that delivers on the promise of broadband. 2. Straight forward deployment-as it requires no licenses. 3. Rapid time of deployment. 4. Low initial investment. 5. Ease of installation even indoors in less than 30 minutes. 6. Security and freedom from irksome regulations like roof top rights and spectral licenses. 7. Re-deploy ability.

Unlike radio and microwave systems FSO is an optical technology and no spectrum licensing or frequency co-ordination with other users is required. Interference from or to other system or equipment is not a concern and the point to point laser signal is extremely difficult to intercept and therefore secure. Data rate comparable to OFC can be obtained with very low error rate and the extremely narrow laser beam which enables unlimited number of separate FSO links to be installed in a given location.

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11. APPLICATIONS OF FSO

Optical communication systems are becoming more and more popular as the interest and requirement in high capacity and long distance space communications grow. FSO overcomes the last mile access bottleneck by sending high bit rate signals through the air using laser transmission. Applications of FSO system are many and varied but a few can be listed. 1. Military and government: Secure and undetectable FSO systems can

connect large areas safely with minimal planning and deployment time 2. Wireless service provider: unlike microwaves or fiber ,FSO does not require spectrum licensing, physical disruption to a location or government zoning approval. Carriers are free to grow their business 3. Enterprise connectivity: As FSO links can be installed with ease, they provide a natural method of interconnecting LAN segments that are housed in buildings separated by public streets or other right-of-way property. 4. Fiber backup: FSO can also be deployed in redundant links to backup fiber in place of a second fiber link 5. Backhaul: FSO can be used to carry cellular telephone traffic from antenna towers back to facilities wired into the public switched telephone network. 6. Service acceleration: Instant services to the customers before fiber being laid.

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12. FSO CHALLENGES

The advantages of free space optics come without some cost. As the medium is air and the light pass through it, some environmental challenges are inevitable.

12.1 FOG
Fog substantially attenuates visible radiation, and it has a similar affect on the near-infrared wavelengths that are employed in FSO systems. Rain and snow have little effect on FSO. Fog being microns in diameter, it hinder the passage of light by absorption, scattering and reflection. Dealing with fog which is known as Mie scattering, is largely a matter of boosting the transmitted power. Fog can be countered by a network design with short FSO link distances. FSO installation in foggy cities like San Francisco has successfully achieved carrier-class reliability.

12.2 PHYSICAL OBSTRUCTIONS

Flying birds can temporarily block a single beam, but this tends to cause only short interruptions and transmissions are easily and automatically re-assumed. Multi-beam systems are used for better performance.

12.3 SCINTILLATION
Scintillation refers the variations in light intensity caused by atmospheric turbulence. Such turbulence may be caused by wind and temperature gradients
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which results in air pockets of varying diversity act as prisms or lenses with time varying properties. This scintillation affects on FSO can be tackled by multi beam approach exploiting multiple regions of space- this approach is called spatial diversity.

12.4 SOLAR INTERFERENCE

This can be combated in two ways:

The first is a long pass optical filter window used to block all wavelengths
below 850nm from entering the system.

The second is an optical narrow band filter proceeding the receive detector
used to filter all but the wavelength actually used for intersystem communications.

12.5 SCATTERING
Scattering is caused when the wavelength collides with the scatterer. The physical size of the scatterer determines the type of scattering.

When the scatterer is smaller than the wavelength-Rayleigh scattering. When the scatterer is of comparable size to the wavelength -Mie scattering. When the scatterer is much larger than the wavelength-Non-selective
scattering In scattering there is no loss of energy, only a directional re-distribution of energy which may cause reduction in beam intensity for longer distance.

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12.6 ABSORPTION
Absorption occurs when suspended water molecules in the terrestrial atmosphere extinguish photons. This causes a decrease in the power density of the FSO beam and directly affects the availability of a system. Absorption occurs more readily at some wavelengths than others. However, the use of appropriate power, based on atmospheric conditions, and use of spatial diversity helps to maintain the required level of network availability.

12.7 BUILDING SWAY / SEISMIC ACTIVITY

One of the most common difficulties that arises when deploying FSO links on tall buildings or towers is sway due to wind or seismic activity Both storms and earthquakes can cause buildings to move enough to affect beam aiming. The problem can be dealt with in two complementary ways: through beam divergence and active tracking With beam divergence, the transmitted beam spread, forming optical cones which can take many perturbations. Active tracking is based on movable mirrors that control the direction in which beams are launched.

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13. FSO! AS A FUTURE TECHNOLOGY

Infrared technology is as secure or cable applications and can be more reliable than wired technology as it obviates wear and tear on the connector hardware. In the future it is forecast that this technology will be implemented in copiers, fax machines, overhead projectors, bank ATMs, credit cards, game consoles and head sets. All these have local applications and it is really here where this technology is best suited, owing to the inherent difficulties in its technological process for interconnecting over distances. Outdoors two its use is bound to grow as communications companies, broadcasters and end users discovers how crowded the radio spectrum has become. Once infrareds image issue has been overcome and its profile raised, the medium will truly have a bright, if invisible, future!

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14. CONCLUSION

FSO enables optical transmission of voice video and data through air at very high rates. It has key roles to play as primary access medium and backup technology. Driven by the need for high speed local loop connectivity and the cost and the difficulties of deploying fiber, the interest in FSO has certainly picked up dramatically among service providers world wide. Instead of fiber coaxial systems, fiber laser systems may turn out to be the best way to deliver high data rates to your home. FSO continues to accelerate the vision of all optical networks cost effectively, reliably and quickly with freedom and flexibility of deployment.

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15.REFERENCES
[1] Wasiu Oyewole Papoola, Subcarrier intensity modulated free-space optical communication systems, School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,September 2009 [2] Manzur, T. Free Space Optical Communications (FSO)Avionics, Fiber-Optics and Photonics Technology Conference, 2007 IEEE [3] Juarez, J.C. ; Dwivedi, A. ; Hammons, A.R. ; Jones,S.D. ;Weerackody, V. ; Nichols,R.A. FreeSpace Optical Communications for Nextgeneration Military NetworksCommunications Magazine, IEEE Volume: 44 , Issue: 11

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