New Generation Free-Space Optical Communication Systems With Advanced Optical Beam Stabilizer

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a novel concept and design of a full-duplex and all-optical FSO transceiver and evaluate its transmission performance in 200 m outdoor environment. Our transceiver enables a reliable fiber-to-fiber FSO link with intelligent lens-based optical-beam-stabilization (OBS) by utilizing miniaturized and cost-effective 3-axis voice-coil motors (VCMs) actuators. The VCM-based moving lens that is widely used in smartphone cameras for auto-focus and opticalimage-stabilization is customized and optimized for our designed transceiver to expand the transmitter and receiver field-of-view, control both the transmitted and incident laser beam alignment, suppress the effects of random beam angle-of-arrival fluctuations induced by the atmospheric turbulence and pointing errors and maintain efficient direct coupling to the fiber core at the receiver. Unlike the 2-axis fast-steering-mirrors, the use of 3-axis VCM lenses can not only maintain the beam alignment, but also control the beam collimation and adjust the difference between the lens focal plane and projection plane for a higher fiber coupling efficiency. Using our developed FSO transceivers, we demonstrate an error-free transmission of the standard signals 10GbE LAN and common public radio interface (LTE-CPRI) over 200 m links. We also performed a continuous 24-hour transmission evaluation in a clear weather day, with only occasional burst errors were recorded and a total 24-hour BER of 3×10 −10 . The obtained results demonstrate the potential of our proposed FSO transceiver to ensure high-capacity communication links and facilitate the adoption of the FSO system as a viable candidate to address the main requirements of B5G/6G networks.

Beyond 5G Fronthaul Based on FSO Using Spread Spectrum Codes and Graphene Modulators

“…Moreover, a FSO transceiver based on a novel, intelligent, lens-based optical beam stabilization technology has recently been demonstrated in Ref. [92]. A new scheme to enhance security based on non-orthogonal multiple access and physical layer coding has been proposed in Ref.…”

Opto-thermo-mechanical phenomena in satellite free-space optical communications: survey and challenges

“…Compatibility with optical fiber technologies in the design of FSOC terminals will enable the use of current fiber-optic technologies to improve the performance of the system. Such is the case of fiber amplifiers to amplify both transmitting 6 and receiving 7 , 8 signals.…”

An integrated design for improving spectral efficiency of FSO communication system in 6G applications

“…Through FSO, 6G targets can be achieved by leveraging bandwidth scales of hundreds of GHz or THz 11 . The effective advantages of FSO systems include lower power consumption, high flexibility, easy installation process, high data rate, high speed compared to broadband, low probability of failure, secure system, low initial investment, and flexible deployments 12,13 . The atmosphere acts as a data transmission channel for an FSO connection, where the attenuations are generated by the FSO system 14 .…”