A combined optical–wireless indoor communication system

This new combined optical–wireless indoor communication system provides an economic and flexible approach for local area networks mainly in large buildings or in a group of several buildings. The radiation from the radio base stations of mobile networks cannot penetrate into large buildings completely. That problem is more serious at higher frequencies. The present approach offers a good solution to this problem. In this approach the wireless communication serves small picocells which are interconnected by an optical backbone. The performance of the system is enhanced by assigning a specific radio frequency for each picocell which enables the transmission of the wireless channels without altering their modulation formats. This method allows for a simple, and low-cost indoor communication system.