Posts by Justin Bertelsen

Elastic optical networks (EONs) are an application of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) that operates using very small spacings between transmittable frequencies, usually 12.5 GHz (or 0.2nm separation). Most EONs are centered at 193.1 THz (or 1553.6nm). What makes EONs especially unique are the two factors of a FSO dynamic system: channel adaptation and discrete frequency…

Overview Optical wireless communications (OWC) is an umbrella term describing any optical communication technology that does not require a hard-wired link between the transmitter and receiver, such as in fiber-optics. This includes line-of-sight systems such as traditional FSO and non-line-of-sight systems such as UV-based atmospheric scattering (see Related Links). It also includes ultra-short point-to-point systems…

[read more and participate on our wiki article here: https://wiki.pathfinderdigital.com/wiki/atmospheric-interference/ ] Overview Atmosphere is the transmission medium for an FSO link. Like all transmission mediums, the atmosphere is subject to attenuation loss. This loss can have a major effect on the availability of an FSO link in that region. Attenuation in the atmosphere is dependent upon…

Overview Adaptive modulation is a technique used to modify the modulation of a signal based on the characteristics of the channel between the transmitter and receiver. It can also be used by an end user to manually adapt a modulated signal for their own modulation purposes. When the channel is undergoing harsh conditions (for FSO,…

Free Space Optics (FSO) communication is not always stationary. Think of an on-the-ground ground-to-space communication station, such as the ones at Goddard. What if optical communication was needed somewhere nearby, but not exactly at, the Goddard Center? It wouldn’t be practical to move the entire station to a new location. Instead, a mobile FSO platform…

Overview Free-space optical (FSO) communication systems are a non-fiber-optic based optical communication systems that aim to handle large amounts of data at a high bandwidth. The simplest example of FSO is using a flashlight to send Morse code to a neighbor. FSO communication is an optical alternative to fiber networks that can act as a…