Short-range wireless infrared transmission: the link buoget compared to RF

The use of wireless infrared for indoor transmission systems offers several advantages over radio, making it an attractive alternative medium for short-range indoor communications. In the article we analyze the physical properties of such wireless IR systems. We present remarkable characteristics of the optical link deriving from the quadratic type of channel. In order to provide a better understanding of the potential of wireless IR, we compare the link budgets of IR and RF. Although multipath effects are not considered for complexity reasons, useful insights are still attained. For our analysis, we identified some important parameters for both media and compared them separately.