A station placed on a high-altitude stationary platform includes two main emitter/receiver sets, each configured to establish a main communication link with a remote terminal station or with another station placed on a high-altitude stationary platform and two backup emitter/receiver sets, each configured to establish a backup communication link with a repeater placed on a relay station on the ground or at sea or with a remote terminal station, the station furthermore comprising a control facility configured to selectively activate a main communication link or a backup communication link as a function of an indicator of the operating state of the main communication link.

A system for transmitting wireless power from multiple sources to multiple receivers, in which the safety of the system is maintained in spite of the possibility that two beams may intersect in the transmission space, thereby generating power or power density levels which exceed those at which the safety mechanisms of the system were designed to operate. The paths of the beams are known from the transmission positions and directions, and from the positions and orientations of the receivers, as measured by positioning devices on them. When an intersection, or near intersection of beams is determined, the system is triggered to reduce the safety risk by attenuating or turning off, or by diverting, one or more of the beams. In addition, since a reflected beam's path may not be readily discernable, the system can ascertain if one of the beams has undergone a reflection, by looking for displayed mirror images.

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, determining a target position of a particular physical location, accessing an image system that provides a number of images based on physical locations including the particular physical location, and obtaining a target image from the image system based on the particular physical location. The target image includes imaged features based on physical features of the particular physical location. Image processing is applied to the target image, and a particular physical feature is identified as a candidate deployment site based on the applying of the image processing, wherein the candidate deployment site is configured to accommodate equipment of a distributed communication network that facilitates transmission of electromagnetic waves along a surface of a transmission medium. Other embodiments are disclosed.

The disclosure provides for a system that includes a network controller configured to determine a network configuration of a network and cause the network to implement the network configuration. The network controller may be configured to determine that an overall link bandwidth for a particular geographic area is less than a set bandwidth amount based on link bandwidth information for possible links directly connected to the particular geographic area. Based on a difference between the overall link bandwidth and the set bandwidth amount, the network controller may be configured to determine additional links to connect to the particular geographic area in a given network configuration of the network. The network controller may then send instructions to the plurality of nodes of the network to cause the plurality of nodes to implement the given network configuration and transmit client data at the given point in time.

A method and system creating a distributed network suitable for transferring information between devices. In particular, the present disclosure relates to power generating server devices designed to act as nodes within a distributed network. Specifically, the present disclosure provides specialized devices designed to generate power using solar panels to power servers that are capable of operating as nodes within a distributed network

A communication system between electronic devices includes a first electronic device and a second electronic device. The first electronic device includes a LED array working within an infrared spectrum and a first LiFi transmission module driving and connected to the LED array. The first LiFi transmission module codes data to be transmitted to generate coded data and send the coded data via the LED array. A PD array of the second electronic device is opposing to the LED array and works within the infrared spectrum. A second LiFi transmission module driving the PD array is connected to the PD array and decodes the coded data received by the PD array to obtain the transmitted data.

The disclosure describes a system that includes a self-driving system for operating a vehicle autonomously, one or more optical transmitters mounted on the vehicle, and one or more computing devices in communication with the self-driving system and the one or more optical transmitters. The one or more computing devices are configured to operate the self-driving system to cause the vehicle to approach a designated location in proximity of a structure on which one or more receivers are mounted and determine that the one or more optical transmitters have an alignment with the one or more receivers. Then, the one or more computing devices are configured to operate the one or more optical transmitters to establish an optical communication link with the one or more receivers and transmit data to the one or more receivers over the optical communication link.

Methods, devices, and systems are described for free space optical communication. An example device can comprise a defocuser configured to receive an optical signal from a laser and control a beam divergence of the optical signal. The optical signal can comprise a data signal and a beacon signal. The device can comprise a controller configured to cause the defocuser to adjust the beam divergence based on an operational mode of the laser.

The disclosure describes a system that includes a self-driving system for operating a vehicle autonomously, one or more optical transmitters mounted on the vehicle, and one or more computing devices in communication with the self-driving system and the one or more optical transmitters. The one or more computing devices are configured to operate the self-driving system to cause the vehicle to approach a designated location in proximity of a structure on which one or more receivers are mounted and determine that the one or more optical transmitters have an alignment with the one or more receivers. Then, the one or more computing devices are configured to operate the one or more optical transmitters to establish an optical communication link with the one or more receivers and transmit data to the one or more receivers over the optical communication link.

A technology is described for optical communication. An example of the technology can include receiving an event stream containing indications of independent events detected by pixels in an event camera. An event may be a change in brightness detected by a pixel in the pixel array, and the pixel independently generates an indication of the event in response to detecting the event. The event stream can be demultiplexed into a plurality of communication streams containing related events associated with a plurality of communication sources. The events contained in a communication stream can be aggregated based in part on an event proximity and an event time that associates an event with other events contained in the event stream. The plurality of communication streams can be demodulated to extract optically transmitted information from the plurality of communication streams, which can be sent to a data consumer.