Omnidirectional Free Space Optical Receiver Architecture

Free Space Optical (FSO) communication is the fusion of wireless technology and optical fiber communications systems. It has the potential of providing fiber optic data rates without the physical restraints of optical fiber cables. This endeavor presents a novel receiver structure with potential for omnidirectional free space optical communications. Interesting approaches for accomplishing omnidirectional free space lasercomm such as direct detection and solar blind non-line of sight UV scattering have been reported over the last few years. However, these technologies have resulted in limited distances of the order of 10 to 100 meters and data rates often limited to less than 1 Mb/s. This endeavor reports the architecture of an omnidirectional receiver setup by integrating an off the shelf detector and a fiber bundle, where the fiber bundle couples omnidirectional photons within its field of view and delivers these photons to the detector. The coupling of light from all directions into a detector is regulated by the cone of the acceptance angle of the fiber. Multiple fibers with overlapping acceptance angles provide the necessary coverage that may be needed to extract the optical signal from the free space optical channel. Simulated results showing the normalized power pattern of the system is presented to demonstrate omnidirectional potential of the structure. Theoretical power level versus distance plot for an FSO System employing On-Off Keying (OOK) is also presented.