Exhaustive Theoretical Study of Practical Free Space Optical Cooperative Relaying Technology: New Trends in IoT Communication

The Internet of Things (IoT) technology is vigorously evolving, necessitating cutting-edge technologies and solutions to effectively realize global wireless communication needs. In response to the explosive growth of data-hungry applications arising from the enormous connectedness of the IoT devices, 6G wireless network, the current radio frequency (RF) range of operation is inadequate to accommodate the growing needs of massive throughput due to congestion and scarcity of bandwidth. Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) technology has been among the emerging communication trends that may help with IoT implementation. If the OWC is operated in infrared wavelength ranges, then it is said to be Free Space Optical Communication (FSO). Future smart infrastructures and systems could tremendously benefit from the use of FSO technology to facilitate device-to-device connectivity. Hybrid access network technologies will be required to support the growing number of IoT devices. Therefore, in this chapter, a review of research works reported in the field of RF/OWC has been presented. The literature on wireless optical systems has been presented to highlight the various factors that impact the operating conditions of FSO systems. Afterward, the combination of radio and Optical Wireless systems has been described and various published research works have been exhaustively reviewed. The objective of this chapter is to bring insights into the key components of Optical Wireless transmission and to highlight various factors that need to be included in mixed radio/Optical Wireless relaying systems to quantify the impact of its practical problems.