A wireless communication link between a communication network and a communication terminal device positioned in a predeterminable region may be established and improve capacity for wireless communication. A line-bound communication link to the communication network may be established via a communication base device arranged in a fixed location, and an optically-based communication link to the communication terminal device may be established via an optical deflection device.

A communication device includes an interleaving unit that determines an interleaving length of transmit data to be transmitted through free-space optical communication, and interleaves the transmit data based on the determined interleaving length, and a shaping unit that shapes the interleaved transmit data so as to make the interleaving length detectable on a receiving side of the free-space optical communication.

An optical communication system includes a free space optical transceiver within a housing to transmit and receive optical communication signals along an optical pathway through a window in the housing. Heating elements applied to the interior surface of the window substantially uniformly heat the window such that the window is kept free from condensation and ice without introducing significant distortions in the wavefront. Accordingly, the heating elements are designed and placed on the window such that the obscuration caused by the presence of the heating elements within the optical pathway and the wavefront distortion caused by temperature gradients within the cross-section of the window in the optical pathway cause less than 1 decibel (dB) in transmission loss as compared to the same system without the heating elements on the window.

An optical system for responding to distortions in incident light in a free space optical communication system includes a machine learning output storing at least an indication of multiple images and corresponding positioning or orientation attributes for one or more optical elements; a sensor configured to generate an image; and a component configured to adjust the one or more optical elements based on the generated image. Various other methods, systems, and apparatuses are also disclosed.

An optical wireless communication system for a vehicle comprises a photonic device and control electronics configured to control the photonic device. The photonic device comprises a plurality of photonic components arranged in a two-dimensional matrix array, and the control electronics are configured to control individually or in groups the photonic components of the plurality of photonic components. Each photonic component or each group of photonic components is configured, where appropriate conjointly with an optic, so as to emit and/or receive at least one optical wireless communication signal in a propagation direction that is discriminable relatively to a propagation direction of optical wireless communication signals emitted and/or received, respectively, by at least one other photonic component or by at least one other group of photonic components of the plurality of photonic components.

An optical interconnect computing module having free space optical interconnects that form communication links with other systems with like optical interconnects and with computer blades contained within the computing module. The computing module adapts to changes in the position and orientation and other factors of the optical interconnects. The optical interconnects utilize solid-state electronic and optoelectronic components and optical components. The ability to adapt is controlled by an algorithm implemented in software, firmware and logic circuits. Computing modules within an equipment rack and between equipment racks as well as blades contained within a computing module may experience changes in position and orientation due to installation misalignment, servicing of equipment, vibrations, floor sagging, thermal expansion and contraction, earthquakes, line-of-sight obstructions, manufacturing imperfections and other sources.

A bidirectional optical wireless transmission system which at least includes one or more optical nodes and terminals is proposed. While the optical node is composed of an optical transmitter, a first optical receiver and a beam collimator; a spatial light modulator, a passive retroreflector and a second optical receiver are employed by the optical terminal to receive the modulated and unmodulated incident beams, which were transmitted from the optical node simultaneously. In the optical terminal, the modulated incident beams are received by the second receiver and the unmodulated incident beams are reflected and through the spatial light modulator in order to be modulated by the spatial light modulator. These modulated reflected beams from spatial light modulator are returned to the optical node through the optical path parallel to the incident beams and received by the first optical receiver within the optical node. The proposed invention based on the beam steering technique provides an efficiency approach to reduce system weight and power consumption in the scenario of bidirectional optical wireless communications.

Aspects of the disclosure provide for a method of transmitting state information using free-space optical communication. The method includes using one or more processors of a first communication device to collect state information of the first communication device. A supervisor signal that carries the state information is transmitted from the first communication device along with a beacon beam in a first solid angle. The supervisor signal is a frequency different from the one or more frequencies of the beacon beam. When a communication link is established between the first communication device and a second communication device, a plurality of data packets is transmitted from the first communication device to the second communication device in a second solid angle smaller than the first solid angle. A subset of the plurality of data packets that do not carry client data carries the state information of the first communication device.

The disclosure provides for a communication system that includes one or more sensors and one or more processors. The one or more processors are configured to receive, during a first timeframe, a first indication of an error rate of a communication link, a second indication of an amount of received power at a remote communication system, and one or more measurements related to the state of the communication system. The one or more processors are then configured to estimate a plurality of disturbance values to the communication system according to the one or more measurements and the second indication. Each disturbance value is associated with a set of components of the communication system. The one or more processors are configured to adjust a beam divergence of a beacon beam or a communication beam transmitted from the communication system based on the plurality of disturbance values and the first indication.

Embodiments of an optical data communication apparatus using micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) micro-mirror arrays is described herein. The apparatus may include a router configured to operate as a relay to exchange optical data signals between optical switches of the apparatus. The optical switches may be configured to switch between reflection directions to reflect the optical signals over different optical connections between the optical switches and different receiving ports of the router. The reflection directions may be switched in accordance with predetermined mappings between the receiving ports of the router and destinations of the optical signals. The router includes a MEMS micro-mirror array configured to reflect received optical signals to the destinations. A processing element of the optical data switching circuitry may generate a plurality of optical data signals and may send the optical data signals to an optical switch of the optical data switching circuitry.