Wireless in-house data communication via diffuse infrared radiation

Abstract

A novel wireless broadcast/multi-access channel is described for flexibly interconnecting a cluster of data terminals located within the same room. The transmission medium is diffusively scattered infrared radiation at 950-nm wavelength. Transmission is low-to-medium speed and the range up to 50 m. Theoretical analysis indicates that the time dispersion limits the transmission bandwidth of the system to 260 Mbit ċ m/s, but background noise produced by ambient daylight reduces the transmission speed below 1 Mbit/s. The transmission properties of the diffuse optical channel are analyzed, and experimental digital links for baseband PCM at 125 kbit/s and PSK 64 kbit/s are demonstrated.