Optical Antennas for Wireless Sensor Network inside the Ariane VEB

This document presents results about the development of an optical wireless sensor network for extreme environments, in particular for the Ariane 5 Vehicle Equipment Bay (VEB). Information about the VEB structure as well as the structural description of the network is introduced. Optical antenna prototypes are presented and some important experimental results are discussed. Some of these results have been obtained by laboratory measurements some were carried out inside the Ariane 5 VEB.