Enhanced detector array receiver for optical wireless communication network

Optical wireless communication is expected to become a promising solution for the "last mile problem". But while laser communication in space can transmit information over long distances without great distortion, terrestrial laser communication systems encounter some serious problems. This is due to the fact that the propagation takes place through the atmosphere, where phenomena such as scattering and turbulence are widespread. We suggest a novel "systems approach" for investigating optical terrestrial communication. Thus it is possible to analyze the communication performance for a number of links simultaneously. The approach is based on concepts borrowed from imaging theory. These concepts involve the use of the optical transfer function (OTF), which describes the object in terms of spatial frequencies. We use some of the models that were developed to characterize the atmospheric channel as a general configuration of an optical communication system. An appropriate trial example of the use of the imaging approach within the communication sphere was selected; this was the calculation of the minimal angular separation between user stations. The critical angle was determined by studying communication performance parameters of the main signal such as BER, for a specific detector array.