CRII: NeTS OP: A Software Defined Approach to Laser-based Free Space Optical Networks

Ohio University, Athens OH

Investigators

Abstract

Free space optical (FSO) communications uses highly directional laser beams instead of radio frequencies to communicate data. FSO communication, especially for wireless networks, can be very low cost in nature for the bandwidth delivered. However, in spite of such obvious advantages, FSO links are rarely used in mobile wireless networks. This award seeks to investigate the leading cause of this phenomenon, namely the high beam alignment delay which poses a major roadblock to the deployment of FSO in mobile networks. Several innovative solutions will be explored in this project: the use of state of the art programmable optical elements that can split the beam into arbitrary patterns and help align the beams quicker, networking protocols that leverage this new capability in order to send data faster, and a novel low cost hardware platform that implements these techniques. Results from this work can improve the performance of the wireless backhaul solutions which is expected to be the basis of emerging access network architectures. As part of the proposed research, participation of underrepresented minorities will be encouraged by involving them in this project. The research outcomes from this project will be rolled back into curricula through the development of a special topics course for graduate students on free space optical communication. In this project, programmable and tunable diffractive optical elements are leveraged to reduce the alignment delay and increase throughput, while new algorithms reconcile the literature on pointing, acquisition & tracking techniques with multi-hop RF-domain neighbor discovery algorithms. A novel FSO frontend for software defined radios, capable of coherent optical communication, will be developed to take advantage of the above enhancements. A simulator model will be extracted from the lessons learned during the hardware design phase, and fed back into the research community.