Perhaps the only deviation from this general
trend has been the mesh networking approach where FSO technology is taken from
being a point-to-point link technology to a mesh networking technology.
The dominant portion of development at the cutting edge of FSO technology has
been occurring at military and university laboratories. There have been significant
efforts and development on optical technologies to overcome atmospheric effects such
as fog and clouds by means of techniques such as famto-second pulses. Efforts have also
been made on developing highly sensitive detectors such as photon-counting detectors.
University labs have also conducted research efforts on networking aspects of FSO
technology. Some of these developments are likely to make their way to commercial
applications soon, while the others, though they may take much longer time to become
commercially viable, are bound to have a lasting impact on the wireless communication
technology landscape.
Figure 9.6 Optical wireless mesh interconnecting wireless access points
Cell Tower
Building
Lamp Post
Traffic Light Post
Legend
WiFi Access Points
FSO Links
260 Chapter 9
Economic Assessment
In the absence of an optical wireless mesh solution, the only feasible method of providing
more than 10 Mbps of Ethernet service in a metro environment is by means of
extending the reach of fiber to every building to be served.
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