Dynamic FOV tracking receiver for dense optical wireless networks

Dense networks are characterized by the prevalence of wireless access points (APs) in close proximity to a population of user devices on a similar scale. This is in contrast with a legacy model of a single AP serving many devices. By increasing AP density, the aggregate data consumption of the system can be dramatically increased. In this paper we consider dense deployment of directional optical access points. In particular, we analyze how a user device can select and track a transmitter then adapt its field of view (FOV) to achieve the best signal quality within the array of APs. Using a geometric model for an indoor space and a reference optical channel model, we formulate an optimization problem with a goal of optimizing FOV for maximum signal to noise ratio (SNR). The results, applied as a proposed dynamic FOV technique with receiver tracking capability, show an average SNR increase of up to 40% when compared to a fixed receiver associated with a user device with dynamic translational/rotational motion. These results motivate the adoption of dynamic pointing and adaptive FOV at the receiver in order to realize improved performance for mobile devices in a dense optical wireless network.