Design and performance of a 1550nm free space optical communications link

Includes bibliographical references (pages 59-60)The demand for high-speed communications systems to transfer large amounts of data has led to the development of new technologies as well as re-visiting old ones. Although Free Space Optical systems (FSO) are not a new technology, they are attracting more attention due to the availability of large amounts of the unregulated bandwidth. The development of FSO systems has been rapid. In spite of their advantages, the performance of FSO systems is affected by weather conditions and pointing problems. Eye-safety issues must also be considered when using an FSO system. In this project, a 1550 nm FSO system was designed using a laser diode. The advantage of the laser diode is that it provides a collimated beam with a low amount of divergence. The effect of the atmospheric and range loss are tested and observed using the OptiSystem software. In addition, the experimental issues of designing and implementing the FSO system are presented in this report