Indoor optical wireless systems–a review

This paper reviews the research effort to date into optical wireless communication systems, both in academic and industrial contexts. The idea of using the optical medium for wireless communications is not new, having been proposed as a means for indoor communications almost two decades ago. However, the last few years have seen an explosive interest in the potential for free space optical systems to provide portable data communications. One of the prime motivators for reconsidering the use of an optical carrier in the wireless context is the demand for greater transmission bandwidths. The radio frequency spectrum is already exceedingly congested and frequency allocations of sufficient bandwidths are extremely hard to obtain. Further, for the high bandwidth services envisaged, the use of microwave or mm-wave systems will be required, where device technology is currently either expensive or immature. Proponents of optical wireless systems argue that the optical medium is the only cost-effective way to provide high bit-rate mobile services to volume markets. This paper identifies the technical obstacles and limitations of indoor optical wireless delivery in addition to techniques for mitigating these effects and shows that infrared is a viable alternative to radio for certain applications. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.