Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery in the field of structured light, enabling them to leverage various light patterns as an encoding alphabet without being hindered by channel noise. This significant advancement in optical communication can be implemented using conventional technology.
The potential of light patterns in facilitating a vast encoding alphabet for optical communications is immense. However, their susceptibility to distortion, whether caused by atmospheric turbulence or bent optical fibers, has impeded progress in this area. Addressing this limitation, a team of researchers from the Structured Light Laboratory at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) has introduced a novel optical communication protocol. This protocol capitalizes on the spatial patterns of light for multi-dimensional encoding, eliminating the need for pattern recognition and overcoming the challenges posed by modal distortion in noisy channels.
The outcome of their research is a state-of-the-art encoding technique that encompasses over 50 vectorial patterns of light, enabling virtually noise-free transmission even across turbulent atmospheres. This breakthrough heralds a new era of high-bit-rate optical communication.
Recently published in Laser & Photonics Reviews, the Wits team elucidates their utilization of a new invariant property of vectorial light to encode information. This property, named “vectorness” by the researchers, remains unchanged within the 0 to 1 range even when passing through a noisy channel. Unlike traditional amplitude modulation, which only offers a two-letter alphabet (0 or 1), the team employed the invariance of vectorness to partition the range into more than 50 segments, creating a 50-letter alphabet (including values such as 0, 0.02, 0.04, and so on). As the channel does not distort the vectorness, both the sender and receiver consistently agree on the value, ensuring noise-free information transfer.
The team’s critical breakthrough lies in the ability to utilize light patterns in a manner that does not necessitate their recognition, thus disregarding the natural distortion introduced by noisy channels. Instead, by aggregating light through specialized measurements, the invariant quantity effectively circumvents the impact of distortion.
“This advance is incredibly exciting as it allows us to fully utilize the numerous light patterns as an encoding alphabet, irrespective of the channel’s noise levels,” remarks Professor Andrew Forbes from the Wits School of Physics. “The size of the alphabet is now only limited by the quality of the detectors and completely independent of channel noise.”
Lead author and PhD candidate Keshaan Singh adds, “Implementing vectorness modulation for creating and detecting these patterns merely requires conventional communications technology, enabling the immediate deployment of our pattern-based protocol in real-world scenarios.”
The team has already commenced demonstrations of their approach in optical fiber and high-speed links across free-space, and they believe that this technique can be successfully employed in other noisy channels, including underwater environments.
Reference: “A Robust Basis for Multi-Bit Optical Communication with Vectorial Light” by Keshaan Singh, Isaac Nape, Wagner Tavares Buono, Angela Dudley, and Andrew Forbes, 9 June 2023, Laser & Photonics Reviews.
DOI: 10.1002/lpor.202370027
5 comments
Wow, this research on structured light is amazin! Noisy channels can’t mess up the encoding alphabet anymore. High-bit-rate transmission has a new champion!
This is such a game-changer for optical comunication! Finally, we can use all those fancy light patterns without worrying about noise. So cool!
These researchers at Wits University are onto something big! The vectorness property of light is genius. No more distortion in noisy channels. Can’t wait to see this in action!
I’m mind-blown by this new optical communication breakthrough. It’s like they found the secret code to noise-free transmission. Can’t wait to read more about it!
The structured light revolution is here! This discovery will revolutionize optical communication. No more limitations due to noise or distorted channels. Simply brilliant!