Registration closes on 15 November 2021 at 5:00pm EST

Online via WebEx

Course Description

This course provides a comprehensive and up to date review of theory and practical implementations of optical wireless communications (OWC). Specifically, the course will provide the fundamentals of Optical Wireless Communications relevant to developing and analyzing communications systems for Terrestrial, Space, Satellite and Underwater terminals.  Due to the breadth of material covered in this course, it will not be possible to provide an in-depth account of all of the latest applications of this technology.  However, participants will receive a balanced mix of theory and applications to gain a broad understanding of optical wireless communications, providing a foundation to enable more advanced studies in this area.

In recent years, there has been a constant and growing demand by end users for bandwidth in mobile communications to support a number of broadband wireless services such as mobile videophones, video conferencing and high-speed Internet access for various every day and business applications. High quality multimedia services in the next decade will require much higher bandwidth than exists today. Free Space Optical (FSO) Wireless Communication (OWC) is the most reliable, flexible and viable wireless option, which also makes it very attractive for incorporating with the emerging 5G wireless communications and Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

Fundamentals of Optical Wireless Communications will be covered in this course with special emphasis on technologies and techniques in achieving high bandwidth, much higher than exists today with RF communications. The instructor will discuss the OWC systems analysis and design issues in order to address a number of challenges, such as atmospheric turbulence, mobility and security. Options relevant to future optical wireless communication terminals, such as LEO, Intersatellite and Constellation of Satellites (Small and CubeSat LaserCom), and Underwater OWC will then be discussed. The course will also cover Optical Wireless Communication with recent Visible Light Communications (VLC) technology.

A technology solution for achieving the future "All-Optical" methods and techniques for accomplishing global Internet connectivity will be discussed.  This course will also cover the communication channel effects for each of the uniquely different channels of Terrestrial, Space, Satellite and Underwater, in order to accomplish “All Optical” Communications.

This course aims to build a fundamental understanding of FSO Communication with applications to Space, Aerial, Terrestrial and Underwater-based systems as well as to introduce participants to critical thinking strategies in FSO Communication to help participants analyze and develop their own systems design.  Please note that derivations of modulation and coding techniques for FSO Communications, and an end-to-end in-depth discussion on a specific FSO system will not be covered in full detail in this course, since information on these topics can be easily found in text books on Communication Engineering/Communication Systems.  The instructor provides a list of recommended references for further reading. If time permits, the instructor will also discuss any related applications of interest to the participants.

Who Should Attend

The course will provide an intermediate to advanced level of instruction for engineering professionals, instructors, researchers, students, and software and hardware developers from academia and industry interested in or working on OWC. Individuals who desire to gain a greater technical depth (from fundamentals to advanced applications) and have a need to assess this emerging technology and design OWC system for their applications will be interested in this course.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the course, participants should understand the:

• Basic knowledge of the theory and principles of optical wireless communications (OWC), and ability to perform OWC system analysis
• Basic system design along with fundamental design concepts with various access networks and Internet connectivity
• Degradation in system performance as a function of various atmospheric Turbulence and Scattering parameters and various mitigation techniques to counter them
• Technology issues that involve transmission of optical/laser energy through the atmosphere, focusing, pointing, tracking, and signal detection processes for achieving multi-Gigabit/sec data rate performance for OWC with access networks
• OWC Transceiver Design; Modulation, Detection, and Coding Technologies; Radio Over FSO (RoFSO) System; Link Analysis and Bit Error Rate (BER) for Indoor, Terrestrial, Airborne and Satellite Platforms, and Underwater OWC Links
• OWC and All-Optical Technology for Global Internet Connectivity: OWC for Satellites-LEO, Inter-Satellite and Constellation of Small Satellites and CubeSats OWC.
• OWC role in 5G deployments and IoT
• Secure communications in OWC, Quantum Communication in Atmospheric OWC

Course Content

Below is an outline of topics covered in this course. 

• Introduction to OWC: Wired vs. Wireless Communications. Free-Space Optics (FSO) vs. Radio Frequency (RF) Wireless Communications
• Types and Various Multiple Access Schemes: Fixed vs. Mobile Communications. Multiple-Input Multiple Output (MIMO) Optical Wireless Systems. Applications to Cellular Systems:  Code-division-multiple-access (CDMA) and Frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) schemes
• Optical Wireless Communications Theory: Different FSO Transmitting Beams. Theory of Free-Space Optical Communication Signal Propagation through Atmospheric Channel. Flowchart for OWC System Performance Evaluation. Link Analysis Calculation: Parameters influencing the link.
• Atmospheric Effects and Mitigation Techniques Applicable to OWC Systems: FSO Channel Models and Characterization. Performance Analysis in presence of Atmospheric Turbulence and Scattering Media. Various Mitigation Techniques for improving atmospheric optical communication performance
• Optical Wireless Communications Systems: Block Diagram with Subsystems, their functions and recent developments of optical sources, techniques, detectors and Optical Networks. Optical Wireless Transceiver Design
• Modulation, Detection, and Coding Techniques for OWC Digital Communication System:  High-level fundamentals of Modulation and Demodulation. Modulation Schemes in OWC including Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). Detection methods in OWC system. Channel Capacity and Coding for FSO Communication Links.
• OWC System Performance. FSO Wireless Access Networks, Metro, Access Network Technologies. Link Availability, Reliability and Margin. OWC Link Performance Bit-Error-Rate (BER), Link Analysis in presence of Atmospheric Turbulence. Examples (Indoor, Terrestrial, Airborne and Satellite Platforms): Short-Range and Long-Range Links, Slant Communication Channel Path.
• Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS), Ultraviolet and Indoor OWC.  NLOS Optical Wireless Communications. Indoor and Outdoor OWC: various scenarios and applications. UV Communications.
• Visible Light-based Optical Wireless Communications.  Different applications VLC-based OWC address. Visible light technologies: VLC and LiFi, Channel Modeling. VLC links.
• Optical Wireless Communications Applications. Examples and Performance of Ultra Short, Short, Medium, Long and Ultra Long Range OWC Applications.  Indoor, Terrestrial, Airborne and Satellite Platforms): Short-Range and Long-Range Links, Slant Communication Channel Path. Disaster recovery. Fiber communications backup. Video conferencing. Links in difficult terrains. Intelligent transport system (car-to-car Communications, ground-to-train communications). Optical Wireless Communications from Space to Optical Chips. Optical Computer.
• Secure Free-Space Optical Wireless Communications: Development and Implementation of Secure Atmospheric Optical Communication Links Chaos-based and Quantum Communication-based.
• OWC for Global Internet Connectivity: OWC for Satellites
• Underwater Optical Wireless Communications: Underwater Channel for Underwater Link Geometries for Calculating Optical Signal reaching the receiver. Satellite-to-Underwater Optical communication.
• Conclusions and Next Future Trend in OWC, Potential Directions and the Possibilities

Course Materials

Each registered participant receives a copy of instructor slides and access to the recording of the course for 20 business days after the live lecture. Earn 0.6 IEEE Continuing Education Units for participating.

Upon registration, you will automatically be emailed the WebEx invitation for the course session, but you will also be sent a reminder message to join the WebEx session prior to the start of the course. Course materials will be emailed to you and will be available for download from the WebEx session page for this course, the day prior to the scheduled course date.

Course Cancellation and Refund Policy: Requests for online course cancellations must be received 3 business days prior to the course date for a full refund. Once course materials have been shared with a participant, a cancellation request cannot be accommodated.

Contact Us

For general inquiries and technical support, contact Tara McNally, Certification and Professional Education Manager.

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