Optical wireless-the promise and the reality

Optical wireless has languished in the shadow of radio primarily because of its limited range, despite the promise of a significantly greater bandwidth. There has been much development on radio systems and the new Bluetooth architecture holds much promise. This, coupled with the fact that the capacity of commercial optical wireless systems has not lived up to expectations, means that the gap between the two performance specs is very narrow. What therefore is the differentiator? Has optical wireless reached its limit? In this paper we investigate this by first giving a brief overview of optical wireless systems that have been designed for short distance, primarily indoor applications. We then compare and contrast these with equivalent radio systems and discuss in detail the key differences. To close we offer an informed view of what the future holds for optical wireless