Indoor ambient light noise and its effect on wireless optical links

Knowledge of ambient optical noise is essential for designers of free space optical links, for designing resilient circuits. An experimental characterisation of the most commonly encountered ambient optical radiation is presented. The study includes tungsten filament sources, low and high frequency fluorescent lights, IR headphones, TV remote controls and daylight. Practical means to reduce their influence on the performance of the links are also given. The results are also valuable for setting a standard way of comparing wireless IR links, based on testing their performance under such ambient noise