Optical interference produced by artificial light

Wireless infrared transmission systems for indoor use are affected by noise and interference induced by natural and artificial ambient light. This paper presents a characterisation (through extensive measurements) of the interference produced by artificial light and proposes a simple model to describe it. These measurements show that artificial light can introduce significant in-band components for systems operating at bit rates up to several Mbit/s. Therefore it is essential to include it as part of the optical wireless indoor channel. The measurements show that fluorescent lamps driven by solid state ballasts produce the wider band interfering signals, and are then expected to be the more important source of degradation in optical wireless systems.