This is the project webpage for NSF grant CNS-1657279 “CRII: NeTS OP: A Software Defined Approach to Laser-based Free Space Optical Networks” from 2017-2019.
Overview
Free space optical (FSO) communications uses highly directional laser beams instead of radio frequencies to communicate data. FSO communication, especially for wireless networks, can be very low cost in nature for the bandwidth delivered. However, in spite of such obvious advantages, FSO links are rarely used in mobile wireless networks. This award seeks to investigate the leading cause of this phenomenon, namely the high beam alignment delay which poses a major roadblock to the deployment of FSO in mobile networks. Several innovative solutions will be explored in this project: the use of state of the art programmable optical elements that can split the beam into arbitrary patterns and help align the beams quicker, networking protocols that leverage this new capability in order to send data faster, and a novel low cost hardware platform that implements these techniques. Results from this work can improve the performance of the wireless backhaul solutions which is expected to be the basis of emerging access network architectures. As part of the proposed research, participation of underrepresented minorities will be encouraged by involving them in this project. The research outcomes from this project will be rolled back into curricula through the development of a special topics course for graduate students on free space optical communication.
Personnel
Michael Atakora (PhD, Fall 2015) homepage
Zachary Tumbleson (undergraduate), REU student during Summer 2017
Products
M. Atakora, H. Chenji,
“A Multicast Technique for Fixed and Mobile Optical Wireless Backhaul in 5G Networks”
in IEEE Access, vol. 6, pp. 27491-27506, 2018.
doiM. Atakora, H. Chenji,
“Multicast Techniques for Hybrid RF FSO DTNs”
in IEEE/OSA Journal of Optical Communications and Networking, Vol.9, Issue 11, Nov. 2017
doiM. Atakora, H. Chenji,
“Overcoming Alignment Delay in RF+FSO Networks,”
in Wireless Optical Networks Symposium, 13th International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC), 2017
doiM. Atakora, H. Chenji,
“Optimal Multicasting in Hybrid RF/FSO DTNs”,
in IEEE Global Communications Conference (Globecom), 2016
doi