This book focuses on optical wireless communications (OWC), an emerging technology with huge potential for the provision of pervasive and reliable next-generation communications networks. It shows how the development of novel and efficient wireless technologies can contribute to a range of transmission links essential for the heterogeneous networks of the future to support various communications services and traffic patterns with ever-increasing demands for higher data-transfer rates.

The book starts with a chapter reviewing the OWC field, which explains different sub-technologies (visible-light, ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) communications) and introduces the spectrum of application areas (indoor, vehicular, terrestrial, underwater, intersatellite, deep space, etc.). This provides readers with the necessary background information to understand the specialist material in the main body of the book, which is in four parts.

The first of these deals with propagation modelling and channel characterization of OWC channels at different spectral bands and with different applications. The second starts by providing a unified information-theoretic treatment of OWC and then discusses advanced physical-layer methodologies (including, but not limited to: advanced coding, modulation diversity, cooperation and multi-carrier techniques) and the ultimate limitations imposed by practical constraints. On top of the physical layer come the upper-layer protocols and cross-layer designs that are the subject of the third part of the book. The last part of the book features a chapter-by-chapter assessment of selected OWC applications.

Optical Wireless Communications is a valuable reference guide for academic researchers and practitioners concerned with the future development of the world's communication networks. It succinctly but comprehensively presents the latest advances in the field.

Autorentext
Murat Uysal received the B.Sc. and the M.Sc. degree in electronics and communication engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 1995 and 1998, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, in 2001. Dr. Uysal is currently a Full Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Ozyegin University, Istanbul, Turkey. Prior to joining Ozyegin University, he was a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo (Canada) where he still holds an adjunct faculty position. Prof. Uysal's research interests are in the broad areas of communication theory and signal processing with a particular emphasis on the physical layer aspects of wireless communication systems in radio and optical frequency bands. He has authored more than 220 journal and conference papers on these topics and received more than 3800 citations. Prof. Uysal currently serves on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Wiley Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (WCMC) Journal, and Wiley Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies (ETT). In the past, he served as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (2003-2011), IEEE Communications Letters (2004-2012), Guest Co-Editor for WCMC Special Issue on MIMO Communications (October 2004) and IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications Special Issues on Optical Wireless Communications (December 2009 and June 2015). Prof. Uysal is the Chair of the EU COST Action OPTICWISE which is a high-profile consolidated European scientific network for interdisciplinary research activities in the area of optical wireless communications.

Carlo Capsoni graduated in Electronic Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy, in 1970 and in the same year joined the Centro di Studi per le Telecomunicazioni Spaziali (CSTS), research centre of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy. In this position, he was in charge of the installation of the meteorological radar of the CNR sited at Spino d'Adda, Italy, and since then, he has been the scientific responsible for radar activity. In 1979, he was actively involved in the satellite Sirio SHF propagation experiment (1118 GHz) and later in the Olympus (12, 20, and 30 GHz) and Italsat (20, 40, and 50 GHz) satellite experiments. His scientific activity mainly focuses on theoretical and experimental aspects of electromagnetic-wave propagation at centimetre and millimetre wavelengths in the presence of atmospheric precipitation with a particular emphasis on attenuation, wave depolarization, incoherent radiation, interference due to hydrometeor scatter, precipitation-fade countermeasures, modelling of the radio channel, and the design of advanced satellite-communication systems. He is also active infree-space optics theoretical and experimental activities. Since 1975, he has been teaching a course on aviation electronics at the Politecnico di Milano, where he became Full Professor of Electromagnetics in 1986. Prof. Capsoni was a member of the ITU national group and was the Italian delegate in COST projects of the European Economic Community related to propagation aspects of telecommunications (COST 205, 210).He is a member of the Italian Society of Electromagnetics (SIEm) and editor of the SIEm Magazine. He is also a member of the Coritel governing body. Prof. Capsoni currently serves as the Chair of OPTICWISE Working Group on Propagation Modelling and Channel Characterization.

Zabih Ghassemlooy received his BSc (Hons) from the Manchester Metropolitan University in 1981, and MSc and PhD from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), in 1984 and 1987, respectively. During 1986-87, he worked in UMIST and from 1987 to 1988 he was a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the City University, London. In 1988, he joined Sheffield Hallam University as a Lecturer, becoming a Professor in Optical Communications in 1997. During 2004-2012, he was an Associate Dean for Research in the School of Computing, Engineering and from 2012-2014 Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University at Newcastle, UK. He currently heads the Northumbria Communications Research Laboratories within the Faculty. He has been a visiting professor at a number of institutions and currently is at University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Optics and Applications, and British Journal of Applied Science Technology. His researches interests are on optical wireless communications, visible light communications and radio over fibre/fr...

Inhalt
Part I: Outlook.- An Overview of Optical Wireless Communications.- Part II: Channel Modelling and Characterization.- Optical Propagation in Unguided Media.- Meteorological Effects on Free-Space Optical Links.- Experimental Validation of FSO Channel Models.- Channel Modeling for Satellite-to-Ground Links.- Visible-Light Channel Modeling and Characterization.- Ultraviolet Scattering Communication Channels.- Part III: Physical Layer Design Issues.- Information Theoretical Characterization of FSO Links.- Diversity Techniques for Mitigating Channel Effects in FSO Links.- MIMO Optical Wireless Communication Systems.- Cooperative Free-Space Optical Networks.- Cooperative Visible-Light Communications.- OFDM-Based Visible-Light Communications.- Frequency Domain Equalization for VLC.- Coherent FSO Communications.- Part IV: Upper Layer Domains.- Multiple Access in Visible-Light Communication Networks.- Link Layer Protocols for Short-Range IR Communications.- Scheduling Protocols in FSO Networks.-FSO Network Design for Resilient Cellular Backhauling.- Part V: Implementation Aspects and Emerging Applications.- Overview of OWC Testbeds and an Open-Source FSO Link Design VLC-Based Indoor Lo…