High speed broadband communication system for moving trains using Free Space Optics

The demand for the high speed broadband communication system is increasing on the moving trains, an alternative to the existing RF technology is the Free Space Optics (FSO) which is capable of providing data rates in Gbps. In recent past, the FSO system for moving trains has been proposed for 850nm wavelength. Considering the eye safety standards, the FSO system is investigated in this paper for 1550nm wavelength in which a single Base Station (BS) transmitter with a 25mW power can provide a data rate of 5Gbps for a coverage length of 180m. An improved performance with a BER of 10-71 when the train is nearest to the BS and 10-10 when the train is at the far end track at an extended range of 180m has been achieved.