Experimental characterization of a synchronous frequency-hopping spread-spectrum transceiver for wireless optical communications

In this paper, the design and experimental characterization of a wireless optical transceiver for indoor applications, based on Frequency-Hopping Spread-Spectrum techniques, is presented. Using these techniques reduce the narrowband interference produced by optical sources and the intersymbol interference induced by multipath propagation. It also makes possible using the CDMA capabilities associated with Spread Spectrum, in order to improve the performances when several emitters and receivers are considered. The main drawback of these kind of systems lies on the high complexity of the synchronization system of the receiver, typically consisting on two cascaded structures: acquisition and tracking. We propose using a dual-pilot signal, transmitted by a master emitter, for reducing both complexity and cost of the synchronization stage of the receiver.