Under the auspices of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) are collaborating in an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center on Optical Wireless Applications (COWA). The COWA Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) members are industrial leaders who meet in bi-annual meetings with COWA faculty and student members to evaluate the potentials of the interdisciplinary research Center activities, in providing leadership to develop new generation of environment-friendly, extremely wideband optical and/or wireless technology applications, employing solid-state devices for communications, networking, imaging, positioning and remote sensing. The research and development effort in North America on optical wireless and its applications are not commensurate with the potentially broad societal improvements. This is an emerging important area, with a great potential and many industries will benefit from the research. 

The Center is based on the integration of interdisciplinary expertise at PSU, and GT with devices and systems-based engineering design and networking concepts. The two institutions are leaders in this field.

The primary goals of this center are to initiate formal partnerships with various industry partners and research laboratories that have an interest in optical wireless applications designs, and to discuss fundamental issues and topics for research.
The Center has the potential to improve the profitability of industry and technical leadership of research Labs by developing new optical wireless devices that will improve the named applications and reduce energy consumption and pollution. Some key member benefits are:

- Research agenda  influenced  by members

- Pre-competitive research results / technology transfer

- Semi-Annual members meetings / networking

- Quality access to faculty, students and facilities

- Professional development / outreach

             -Short courses

             - Conferences

             - Other educational opportunities

- Ongoing engagement and communications with Center

Demands by the communications industry for greater and greater bandwidth push the capability of conventional wireless technology.  Part of the Radio Spectrum that is suitable for mobility is very limited. Only up to 1.9 GHz contains allocation for what is known as cellular band where due to reflections-induced multipath, high-quality service non-line-of-sight mobility is feasible. Moving to higher frequencies, due to higher path-loss, the number of dropped calls increases. Digital video and internet data offering in these bands have caused the current Radio Airwaves Spectrum Crunch.

 

Sorry, America: Your wireless airwaves are full

Source: David Goldman - CNNMoneyTech February 21, 2012

 

Waves in very-high frequency bands tend to travel only a few miles or less and generally do not penetrate solid materials very well. This offers a sustainable solution to ease the radio access and to help ease the current radio airwaves spectrum crunch.

One mission of our CENTER is to demonstrate practical and usable networks using high radio frequencies and optical waveforms that can provide very efficient spectrum utilization through “selective spectrum reuse”, and  naturally increase the security of transmissions.

 

Optical communications have a far greater bandwidth. This means new devices and systems have to be developed. This CENTER addresses this new technological sector. The students will be the workforce to propel the industry into this new technology.

Two branches of optical wireless have emerged contemporaneously, as explained below.

 

In one branch, semiconductor Light Emitting Diode (LED) is considered to be the future primary lighting source for buildings, automobiles and aircrafts. LED provides higher energy efficiency (higher Luminous Efficacy) compared to incandescent and fluorescent light sources and it will play a major role in the global reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, as a consequence of the significant energy savings. Lasers are also under investigation for similar applications. These core devices have the potential to revolutionize how we use light, including not only for illumination, but as well for communications, sensing, navigation, positioning, surveillance, and imaging in an Environmentally-Friendly manner.

 

Data Communications by Light

 

In the second branch,  wired optical networks and various wireless networks are merged. Each of the optical wireless networks has its unique applications, message coding, security features and technology for sending and receiving messages. Among applications in this area are; multi-band, multi-service wireless over optical access, distributed radio-over-fiber access network for cloud-computing, broadband millimeter-wave wireless sensor communications, and microwave photonics for integrated multi-gigabit wireless systems.

Broadband Access -Radio over Fiber

 

The Center intends to attract a vertically integrated set of companies from device manufacturers to systems and networks integrators. As a major goal, the center undeniably sets the directions for researching and developing the transformative potentials of mm-wave, infra-red, visible, and ultra-violet light, a new era of LED's, lasers, and other light sources, which will not only provide energy efficient lighting, but also offer a means for wireless broadband connectivity, human-vision-friendly imaging, and reliable distributed sensing. This is done through offering innovative designs, functionality and performance.

 

Visible Light Communications

 

Visible Light (VL) Applications are emerging technology areas that utilize the high-speed switching properties of Visible Light LEDs for wireless data applications with data rates higher than conventional 802.11 wireless networks and additional benefits of:

 

• Sustainable solution for the current Spectrum Crunch.

• Energy efficiency in Luminous Efficacy --  LEDs are far more efficient than Incandescent and far more flexible than Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs).

• Wider spectrum – more capacity than WiFi frequency bands.

• Improved Security – does not penetrate beyond building walls.

• No electromagnetic interference.

As LED’s increasingly displace incandescent lighting over the next few years, general applications of VL technology are expected to include wireless Internet access, vehicle-to-vehicle communications, broadcast from LED signage, machine-to-machine communications, positioning systems, navigation, etc.

Wireless High-Resolution Video Communications by IR

 

The VL technology has potential in a number of specialized application areas including the following:

• Indoors/Outdoors Light Positioning System (LPS) in analogy to GPS.

• Light Navigation Systems

• Hospital & Healthcare – enabling mobility and data communications in hospitals.

• Hazardous Environments – enabling data communications in environments where  RF might be potentially harmful (such as Oil & Gas, Petrochemicals and Mining).

• Commercial Aviation – enabling wireless data communications such as in flight entertainment and personal communications.

• Corporate and Organizational Security – enabling the use of Wireless Networks in applications where WiFi presents a security risk.

• WiFi Spectrum Relief – providing additional bandwidth in environments where unlicensed communication bands are congested.

• Defense & Military Applications – enabling high data rate wireless communications within military vehicles and aircrafts.

• Underwater communications – between divers and/or remote operated vehicles.

The knowledge discovered during the exploratory phase of the projects can bring about major advancements in the performance of various classes of computers from server machines to supercomputers; the proposed concepts based on LEDs and Lasers will be beneficial to society and important to maintain leadership in communications technology.