Analysis of Optical Wireless Systems based on Line Strip Multibeam Transmitters and Diversity Detection

This paper presents and evaluates an original optical wireless configuration that employs multibeam transmitters in conjunction with direction diversity receivers. Such a configuration overcomes the drawbacks and combines the advantages of both types of optical wireless links including line-of-sight and diffuse links. The effect of this configuration on the optical end-to-end channel propagation is investigated with due consideration to received power and delay spread. A multibeam transmitter placed on the communication floor was used to produce multiple diffusing spots on the middle of the ceiling in the form of a line strip. The signal power distribution was analysed and the resultant SNR is shown to be better than that associated with a conventional diffuse system. Furthermore, using the line strip multibeam transmitter (LSMT) and with only three branches diversity, the proposed system gives about 23 dB SNR improvement over the conventional diffuse system.