Architecture of a broadband wireless campus area network

The world of wireless communication has grown very fast over the past few years. Wi-Fi access points have now become very common feature in homes, campuses and public places. In these applications, high-speed, low cost and high security is desirable. Radio frequency (RF) transmission is used in most of the wireless applications. However, the RF spectrum is so congested that it is very difficult to accommodate new high-bit-rate applications. On the other hand, IR technology is less costly, free of government regulation, immune to radio interference, and secure. Infrared radiation (IR) based optical wireless (OW) system with low implementation complexity and no spectrum license requirements can provide a possible solution. This paper proposes architecture of a broadband wireless campus area network (WCAN) using OW links operating at 1550 nm wavelength, which provides eye-safe excellent power budget and improved link performance against ambient light as well as unfavorable weather conditions. The proposed WCAN allows computer users in different buildings e.g. departments, library and studentspsila residences to share multimedia information and resources with fiber-like bandwidth capacity at lower cost. The proposed WCAN is an all-optical network consisting of both indoor as well as outdoor optical links. The indoor optical links provide wireless connectivity to the stationary and mobile wireless data terminals within a room. At the same time, outdoor optical links are the cost effective, high-bandwidth, wireless alternative for inter connecting the various campus entities.