A space division multiplexed free-space-optical communication system that can auto-locate and fully self align with a remote transceiver

Free-Space Optical (FSO) systems offer the ability to distribute high speed digital links into remote and rural communities where terrain, installation cost or infrastructure security pose critical hurdles to deployment. A challenge in any point-to-point FSO system is initiating and maintaining optical alignment from the sender to the receiver. In this paper we propose and demonstrate a low-complexity self-aligning FSO prototype that can completely self-align with no requirement for initial manual positioning and could therefore form the opto-mechanical basis for a mesh network of optical transceivers. The prototype utilises off-the-shelf consumer electrical components and a bespoke alignment algorithm. We demonstrate an eight fibre spatially multiplexed link with a loss of 15 dB over 210 m

Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Fog on Optical Camera-based VLC for a Vehicular Environment

The widespread increase in the use of light emitting diodes in vehicle’s head and taillights and also the use of dashboard cameras provides great prospects for the optical camera based visible light communications (VLC) technology in intelligent transport systems. In this paper, we experimentally investigate the impact of fog on the optical camera based VLC technology for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. A range of meteorological visibilities between 5–120 m is considered based on realistic inter-vehicle distances in practical vehicular environments and using a real car taillight as the transmitter. We show a reduction in the index of modulation of the signals from 1 to 0.75 and 0.5 to allow for tracking purposes of the light source when sending ‘0’ symbols. The results show that, the link is error-free up to 20 m meteorological visibility for the three modulation index scenarios and degrades considerably below 10 m meteorological visibility

Fog Mitigation Using SCM and Lens in FSO Communications

A free space optical (FSO)communications link performance is highly affected by the atmospheric conditions. This paper compares the effectiveness of employing a spherical concave mirror (SCM)and a convex lens at the receiver to compensate for the effect of fog in FSO communication links. The results show that, for the fog induced signal attenuation lower than 9.17dB there is a marginal improvement in the FSO link performance in terms of the Q-factor by a maximum of 8% when using an SCM at the receiver compared with a regular lens

Differential Signalling in Free-Space Optical Communication Systems

In this paper, we review the differential signalling technique and investigate its implementation of in free-space optical (FSO) communication systems. The paper is an extended version of our previous works, where the effects of background noise, weak turbulence and pointing errors (PEs) were investigated separately. Here, for the first time, we present a thorough description of the differential signalling scheme including for combined effects. At first, we present an extension of the analysis of differential signalling to the case of moderate to strong atmospheric turbulence. Next, we investigate a more general case where both channel turbulence and PEs are taken into consideration. We provide closed-form expressions for the optimal detection threshold and the average bit-error-rate, and present a set of numerical results to illustrate the performance improvement offered by the proposed differential signalling under various turbulence and PEs conditions

Implementation and Evaluation of a Gigabit Ethernet FSO Link for 'The Last Metre and Last Mile Access Network'

In this paper, we propose a simple and a low cost 1 Gbps Ethernet free-space optical (FSO) communications link, which can be used both for the last meter and last mile access networks. In the emerging fifth generation wireless systems, which require at least an order of magnitude increase in the peak data rates and three orders of magnitude increase in network capacity with reduced latency, deploying multiple technologies will play a crucial role to meet these requirements. One possible complementary wireless technology to the radio frequency is the unlicensed FSO, which can bridge the gap between the existing RF wireless and optical fibre communication networks by providing high data rates, low installation costs and high energy efficiency. In this work, we propose a high-speed FSO system, which can be readily implemented using off the shelf components, and assess its performance experimentally under turbulence and fog conditions using the dedicated indoor atmospheric chamber. We show that, the proposed system under the turbulence condition with a scintillation index of 0.43 offers almost the same data rate (i.e., ∼99%) as the link under a clear channel, while the packeterror-rate reduces from 10−3 to 2 × 10−2

A Head/Taillight Featuring Hybrid Planar Visible Light Communications/Millimetre Wave Antenna for Vehicular Communications

With the emergence of the fifth generation and beyond mobile networks, both visible light communications (VLC) and radio frequency (RF) or millimetre wave (mmW) systems are expected to maintain the connectivity in various environments. In outdoor environments the link (VLC or RF) availability is paramount, which is affected by channel conditions. In particular, in vehicular communications other vehicles, harsh environment, and road geometry and structure will have the impact on the link connectivity and availability. In such cases, a front-end antenna solution, which benefits both optical and RF communication links, can be seen as an attractive option that can be fitted in future vehicles. In this paper, we present the design and practical implementation of a planar hybrid VLC/mmW antenna operating at 20.8 GHz and show measured results for characterization of RF and VLC links as well as communications performance. We have used the widely adopted on-off keying and quadrature amplitude modulation schemes with different orders to demonstrate data rates of 5 Mb/s and up to 100 Mb/s for the VLC and mmW links, respectively. By measuring the bit error rate and the error vector magnitude for VLC and Rf links, respectively for each modulation we have shown that the proposed hybrid planar antenna is suitable for example in a typical vehicle -to-vehicle communications

Impact of Link Parameters and Channel Correlation on the Performance of FSO Systems With the Differential Signaling Technique

We investigate the effects of link parameters and the channel correlation coefficient on the detection threshold, Q-factor, and bit-error-rate (BER) of a free-space optical system employing a differential signaling scheme. In systems employing differential signaling schemes, the mean value of the signal is used as the detection threshold level, provided that differential links are identical or highly correlated. However, in reality, the underlying links are not essentially identical and have a low level of correlation. To show the significance of the link parameters as well as the correlation coefficient, we derive analytical relations describing the effect of weak turbulence and we determine the improvement of Q-factor with the channel correlation. Further, for the same signal-to-noise ratio, we demonstrate that a link with a higher extinction ratio offers improved performance. We also propose a closed-form expression of the system BER. We present experimental results showing improved Q-factor for the correlated channel case compared to the uncorrelated channel

Communication characteristics of high-brightness light sources based on luminescence concentration

Communication characteristics of high-brightness solid-state light sources based on luminescence concentration generated using blue emitting InGaN light emitting diode arrays are demonstrated here for the first time. The proposed device is used as a transmitter in visible light communications, and its performance is evaluated

The relationship between personality traits and drug type among Substance Abuse

Substance abuse is a serious global problem that is affected by multiple psychosocial factors, and personality traits play a central role in its occurrence. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between the five factors of personality (extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and neuroticism) and five categories of drugs (sedatives, opiates, stimulants, hallucinogens, and marijuana) among self-introduced addicts. The statistical population of the study was self-introduced addicts attending addiction treatment centers in Khorram Abad. The participants of the study included 100 addicts with drug abuse disorder who were selected by the classified sampling method underlining five classes of drugs (20 participants in each class) as the sampling strata. Data were gathered using the structured clinical interview of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders, NEO five-factor inventory-revised, and the structured demographic questionnaire. The results showed that high levels of neuroticism distinguish users of sedatives from those of other drugs. participants with high levels of openness to experience and low agreeableness and conscientiousness are consistently associated with the use of marijuana, hallucinogens, and stimulants. The results also demonstrated that addicts with high levels of extraversion and low levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness are consistently associated with the use of stimulants. The results of this research indicate that personality traits contain valuable information about the nature of personality traits affecting drug type in addicts. These findings are useful in drug abuse treatment and preventing drug abuse recurrence