A 1 Gbit/s optical wireless tracked architecture for ATM delivery

The advantages of high bandwidth, no regulation and cheap technology make optical wireless the only realistic medium for the delivery of high bandwidth connections to mobile users. The major challenge for system designers is to engineer cheap, practical systems with a sufficiently large power margin for operation in areas such as offices, railway stations and shopping malls. Adopting a tracked architecture allows the use of small, high sensitivity receivers, low power transmitters and high gain optical concentrators. The emergence of two dimensional arrays of surface emitting lasers offers the prospect of practical mobile ATM demonstrators.