COST Action OPTICWISE

COST Action to shape the future of Optical Wireless Communications Launched with the leadership of Özyeğin University!

The launch meeting for the COST Action OPTICWISE will be held between March 19 and 21 on the Özyeğin University Çekmeköy Campus. The meeting will be presided over by Associate Prof. Murat Uysal, Özyeğin University School of Engineering faculty member. The COST Action OPTICWISE aims to serve as a platform to bring together the leading universities and companies in Europe in quest to conduct high level research in optical wireless communications. The 4-year action aims to coordinate nationally funded research projects in optical wireless communication and provide financial support for joint research projects conducted by researchers across Europe.

Associate Prof. Uysal, Chairman of the Cost Action Executive Board, indicated that projects to be carried out within the scope of the OPTICWISE Action will have a major impact over the next decade and will offer stronger alternatives to both fiber optic and conventional radio frequency technologies. OPTICWISE seeks to develop a variety of optical wireless communication technologies for different ranges and various fields of application. For instance, using laser transmitters, it is now possible to transmit data miles beyond through the atmosphere at a faster rate than gigabits (ten billion bits a second) without using a fiber optic cable. “Although commercial prototypes of such systems are currently available; their ranges are very limited,” says Associate Prof. Muray Uysal, emphasizing that what they aim is to develop innovative algorithms and signal processing techniques in quest to offer OWC technologies that have the same quality of fiber optic technologies.

The OPTICWISE Action will also strive to create an application in pursuit of using household and business lighting systems for communication purposes as an alternative to WI-FI. Such systems modulate high frequency optical signals that are not detectable by the human eye, using LED bulbs as transmitters, and offer 10 to 50 times faster solutions compared to current wireless systems. Similarly, such systems also enable wireless communications outdoors, using electronic billboards and traffic lights. Furthermore, the action also plans to develop a wireless communication technology for vehicles, which allows vehicles to communicate with one another using their headlights and signal lamps in quest to provide real-time and accurate information flow about traffic to drivers and increase traffic safety.

Associate Prof. Murat Uysal highlighted the fact that aforesaid applications are just some of the applications among many they plan to develop within the scope of the action. Associate Prof. Murat Uysal also noted that OWC promises to become the technology of the future with its large field of application and its great advantages; and therefore it is a great privilege for Turkey to take the lead of such a large scale project.