Dense Maritime Fog Attenuation Prediction from Measured Visibility Data

The benefits of Free Space Optics (FSO) motivate to use it for future high data rate demanding communication applications. However, widespread growth of the technology has been hampered by reduced availability due to weather influences on the link. The fog has been analyzed as the most detrimental for FSO communication. There are some models that predict fog attenuation in terms of visibility. These models are compared with measured attenuation data of dense maritime fog. The comparison has been in terms of Sum of Square Error (SSE) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). A new model has been proposed that gives the least SSE and RMSE for the measured data

The Effects of Weather on the Life Time of Wireless Sensor Networks Using FSO/RF Communication

The increased interest in long lasting wireless sensor networks motivates to use Free Space Optics (FSO) link along with radio frequency (RF) link for communication. Earlier results show that RF/FSO wireless sensor networks have life time twice as long as RF only wireless sensor networks. However, for terrestrial applications, the effect of weather conditions such as fog, rain or snow on optical wireless communication link is major concern, that should be taken into account in the performance analysis. In this paper, life time performance of hybrid wireless sensor networks is compared to wireless sensor networks using RF only for terrestrial applications and weather effects of fog, rain and snow. The results show that combined hybrid network with three threshold scheme can provide efficient power consumption of 6548 seconds, 2118 seconds and 360 seconds for measured fog, snow and rain events respectively resulting in approximately twice of the life time with only RF link

Performance Analysis of Throughput Efficient Switch-over between FSO and mmW Links

Free Space Optics (FSO) links provide usage of high bandwidth and the flexibility of wireless communication links. However, weather patterns like fog and heavy snow fall limit the availability of FSO. Another technology providing similar properties regarding offered data rates and flexibility of setup is Millimeter Wave Technology (mmW), operating at several tens of GHz. In this case, heavy rain limits mmW link availability. A combination of both technologies had been proved to be very effective to achieve very high availability. Different hybrid architectures of these two links and switch-over techniques had been proposed in the recent years. All of these techniques require redundant transmission on either both transmission links or waste bandwidth of backup link when main FSO link is operational. In this paper, a switch-over between these technologies is proposed, to maintain high availability without the loss of transmission bandwidth. The performance of this switch-over has been simulated for more than one year measured availability data for hybrid network of mmW link and FSO link. The switch over behavior has also been simulated for fog, rain and snow events. It has been shown that the availability with switch-over reaches the redundant link availability but switchover can save more than 90% redundant transmission and increase the hybrid network throughput significantly

Probabilistic Model for Free-Space Optical Links Under Continental Fog Conditions

The error characteristics of a free-space optical (FSO) channel are significantly different from the fiber based optical links and thus require a deep physical understanding of the propagation channel. In particular different fog conditions greatly influence the optical transmissions and thus a channel model is required to estimate the detrimental fog effects. In this paper we shall present the probabilistic model for radiation fog from the measured data over a 80 m FSO link installed at Graz, Austria. The fog events are classified into thick fog, moderate fog, light fog and general fog based on the international code of visibility range. We applied some probability distribution functions (PDFs) such as Kumaraswamy, Johnson SB and Logistic distribution, to the actual measured optical attenuations. The performance of each distribution is evaluated by Q-Q and P-P plots. It is found that Kumaraswamy distribution is the best fit for general fog, while Logistic distribution is the optimum choice for thick fog. On the other hand, Johnson SB distribution best fits the moderate and light fog related measured attenuation data. The difference in these probabilistic models and the resultant variation in the received signal strength under different fog types needs to be considered in designing an efficient FSO system

The structure of causal sets

More often than not, recently popular structuralist interpretations of physical theories leave the central concept of a structure insufficiently precisified. The incipient causal sets approach to quantum gravity offers a paradigmatic case of a physical theory predestined to be interpreted in structuralist terms. It is shown how employing structuralism lends itself to a natural interpretation of the physical meaning of causal sets theory. Conversely, the conceptually exceptionally clear case of causal sets is used as a foil to illustrate how a mathematically informed rigorous conceptualization of structure serves to identify structures in physical theories. Furthermore, a number of technical issues infesting structuralist interpretations of physical theories such as difficulties with grounding the identity of the places of highly symmetrical physical structures in their relational profile and what may resolve these difficulties can be vividly illustrated with causal sets.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Spectral-domain optical coherence reflectometric sensor for highly sensitive molecular detection

We describe what we believe to be a novel use of spectral-domain optical coherence reflectometry (SD-OCR) for highly sensitive molecular detection in real time. The SD-OCR sensor allows identification of a sensor surface of interest in an OCR depth scan and monitoring the phase alteration due to molecular interaction at that surface with subnanometer optical thickness sensitivity. We present subfemtomole detection sensitivity for etching of Si

Morpho-molecular ex vivo detection and grading of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer using forward imaging probe based multimodal optical coherence tomography and Raman spectroscopy

Non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer affects millions of people worldwide, resulting in significant discomfort to the patient and potential death. Today, cystoscopy is the gold standard for bladder cancer assessment, using white light endoscopy to detect tumor suspected lesion areas, followed by resection of these areas and subsequent histopathological evaluation. Not only does the pathological examination take days, but due to the invasive nature, the performed biopsy can result in significant harm to the patient. Nowadays, optical modalities, such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) and Raman spectroscopy (RS), have proven to detect cancer in real time and can provide more detailed clinical information of a lesion, e.g. its penetration depth (stage) and the differentiation of the cells (grade). In this paper, we present an ex vivo study performed with a combined piezoelectric tube-based OCT-probe and fiber optic RS-probe imaging system that allows large field-of-view imaging of bladder biopsies, using both modalities and co-registered visualization, detection and grading of cancerous bladder lesions. In the present study, 119 examined biopsies were characterized, showing that fiber-optic based OCT provides a sensitivity of 78% and a specificity of 69% for the detection of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer, while RS, on the other hand, provides a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 61% for the grading of low- and high-grade tissues. Moreover, the study shows that a piezoelectric tube-based OCT probe can have significant endurance, suitable for future long-lasting in vivo applications. These results also indicate that combined OCT and RS fiber probe-based characterization offers an exciting possibility for label-free and morpho-chemical optical biopsies for bladder cancer diagnostics. © 2020 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Focus-extension by depth-encoded synthetic aperture in Optical Coherence Tomography

We present a novel method to extend the depth-of-focus of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). OCT is an interferometric imaging technique that provides depth-resolved scattering information. The axial resolution in OCT is provided by the coherence gate and is invariant over the full image depth. The lateral resolution is determined by the beam parameters such as wavelength and numerical aperture. The Rayleigh range determines the depth range over which the lateral resolution can be maintained. The lateral resolution is often sacrificed to maintain relatively long Rayleigh range. In this study, we propose to use a depth-encoded synthetic aperture detection scheme to extend the depth range over which a sharp focus can be maintained beyond the Rayleigh range. An annular phase plate is inserted into the light path in the sample arm, which gives rise to three separate images in a single B-scan, corresponding to three different optical path length encoded apertures. These three images are coherently summed after phase-manipulation to reconstruct a new image with a lateral resolution that is maintained over a five times larger depth range. © 2013 Optical Society of America