On Divergence-Angle Efficiency of a Laser Beam in Free-Space Optical Communications for High-Speed Trains

Yagiz Kaymak, Roberto Rojas-Cessa, Jianghua Feng, Nirwan Ansari, Mengchu Zhou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

We compare narrow and wide laser beams in a free-space optical (FSO) communications system for high-speed train communications and analyze the tradeoffs among the received power, coverage area, and the complexity of the acquisition-tracking-pointing (ATP) mechanism. We propose to employ a divergence angle of a wide beam in the range [0.07, 2.002] to relax the steering speed of the fast steering mirror, which is a major component of the ATP mechanism in an FSO transceiver. In addition, we overcome the negative effects of train vibrations by using a proposed divergence-angle range for a wide beam. The proposed range of divergence angles provides a large link range and effective coverage length, and contact time as compared to a narrow beam.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number7885601
Pages (from-to)7677-7687
Number of pages11
JournalIEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Volume66
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2017

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Automotive Engineering

Keywords

  • Free-space optical (FSO) communications
  • beam divergence angle
  • high-speed train communications
  • narrow beam
  • optical wireless communications
  • wide beam

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