Preliminary Results of an Optical Wireless Communications Prototype Developed at TU Graz

Based on commercial-of-the-shelf components, an optical wireless communications (OWC) prototype was developed by the Optikom group at TU Graz. The alignment method was described in great detail, and the coupling efficiency was investigated by measurement and simulation. Then the prototype was tested in an outdoor environment. It shows that it functioned properly over a distance of 10 m under fair conditions. Over the distance of 60 m, it worked properly most of the time under light snow, while in case of snow shower the BER increased dramatically. Besides, persistent periodic fluctuations were found in the received power.