A review of indoor optical wireless systems

Optical wireless communication offers a viable alternative to radio frequency (RF) communication for indoor use and other applications where high performance links are needed. These systems use infrared technology (IR), which has significant advantages over RF. This paper presents a review of the most significant issues related to infrared communication technology, which will enable the realization of future high performance and cost-effective indoor optical wireless systems. Several possible configurations for indoor optical wireless systems, modulation and multi-access techniques are presented as well as their advantages and limitations discussed.