A space division multiplexed free-space-optical communication system that can auto-locate and fully self align with a remote transceiver.
Abadi, Mojtaba Mansour;Cox, Mitchell A;Alsaigh, Rakan E;Viola, Shaun;Forbes, Andrew;Lavery, Martin P J;
Scientific reports2019Vol. 9pp. 19687
280
abadi2019ascientific
Abstract
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.