At a Glance
Fraunhofer HHI has more than 20 years of experience on Optical Wireless systems and provides compact communication modules for immediate industrial prototyping and field tests.
Technical Background
Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) offers mobile high speed data transmission via light. The LED based systems use unregulated optical (visible or near infrared) spectrum. As light does not pass through walls, enhanced security is achieved. Dense user scenarios, easy small cell deployment and interference-free operation to existing radio wireless systems are possible. OWC is well suited for numerous use cases like Industrial Wireless, Mobile Front- and Backhauling and Indoor Li-Fi.
Features
- Combination of lighting and data communication
- Improved privacy
- Use of standard illumination LEDs or IR-LEDs
- Multi-user access possible
- Robust against electromagnetic interference
Applications
- Femtocell deployment for network densification
- Wireless communication in industrial environments
- Optical wireless hotspot
- Data offloading from radio networks
- Spatial diversity solutions for Industry 4.0
Specifications
- Peak data rate up to 1 Gbps
- Low latency (< 1 ms)
- Up to 50 m² coverage
- Bidirectional, all-optical communication
- Dynamic rate adaptation
- Universal Ethernet Interface
Coverage plot of the HHI OWC-module showing
>160 Mbps @ 20 m2 and >120 Mbps @ 50 m2. Higher data rates are feasible with a different trade-off between rate and coverage.