Reflection-Assisted Non-Line-of-Sight Ultraviolet Communications

Considering high path loss (PL) of the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) ultraviolet communications (UVC) realized by the atmospheric scattering effect of ultraviolet light, we propose to use a reflective plane to improve the received optical power and further reduce the PL. More specifically, a channel model for NLOS UVC with not only scattering but also reflection considered is proposed via Monte-Carlo (MC) photon-tracing method. Both scattering and reflective events are called collision-induced events (CIEs). The proposed channel model can obtain the PL and channel impulse response (CIR) performances of the NLOS UVC system with multiple-order CIEs. It is shown that the reflective plane could reduce the PL and the time delay of CIR, which could be a benefit for designing high data-rate NLOS UVC systems. Finally, experimental results in two representative scenarios are also given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed channel model for reflection-assisted NLOS UVC systems.