Experimental characterization of a direct sequence spread spectrum system for in-house wireless infrared communications

The design and experimental characterization of a wireless infrared direct-sequence spread spectrum (WIR-DSSS) system is presented This prototype support low and medium data rates (up to 64 kbps) enough for most consumer appliances, but can be easily increased to rates of about 1-2 Mbps if required. This system is designed to be used in the control and interconnection of heterogeneous appliances in the in-house environment, such as microwave ovens, washing machines, refrigerators, audio equipment, etc. The application of this technology for these kinds of channels allows the possibility of interchanging events without the need for a line-of-sight path between emitter and receiver. This eliminates the effect of ISI induced by multipath propagation and also permits the sharing of the channel avoiding the use of complex protocols (such as CSMA) using code-division multiple-access (CDMA) strategies.