Optical wireless Ethernet

This paper details the design and testing of an optical wireless Ethernet system. This system is a demonstration unit that grants the user of a mobile computer access to network services usually only available to wired users. The system operates at the full Ethernet rate of 10Mbit/s and has a range of approximately four meters in a typical office environment. Issues concerning the safety of the transmitters has been presented along with details of how the commercial LEDs used in the transmitter were switched at the high speeds and powers required. Also the transmitter/receiver link has been modeled and simulated. These simulations compare well to measurements taken in a test room, the layout of which matches that of a typical office environment