Introduction to OptiKom

The group "Optikom" of Graz University of Technology deals with research and development in the field of optical communications with special emphasis on Free Space Optics (FSO), have been working and developing optical systems for more than 12 years. The group specializes in studying the atmospheric conditions effecting free space optical links, and in evaluating different network architectures for wireless optical solutions.
The group currently is involved in state of the art research and development in "High Speed Reliable FSO links", the work is focused upon producing fully operable ethernet based gigabit systems and to enhance the system performance using special modulation and channel coding techniques, particularly well suited to the FSO environment. The group is also pursuing state of the art research in improved modem design for FSO, with projects like developing estimation and equalization algorithms, and later plans to develop adaptive coded-modulation and an intelligent switchover architecture between FSO and RF Links.
The group contributed heavily to the recently concluded COST action 270 and have led the sub-workpackage  on "Optical Wireless" very successfully in SatNEx-1 and now SatNEx-2 since the inception of SatNEX in 2003. The group is lead by Prof. Dr. Leitgeb, who has been involved in active research in optical communications since 1994, and has been the project leader for projects like OptiKom-F and LEDKom-F, and was also the Austrian MC-delegate and project coordinator of COST 270. Current research activities are around contracts with ESA and the COST action IC0802.

The group has over 100 international publications in different journals and conferences, and keeps contributing every year to major conferences and journals, like the SPIE and the IEEE. The group "Optikom" currently has two full time and about five part time PhD students and quite a few diploma and master thesis are also being supervised. Optikom has considerable experience in the field and has demonstrated high bit rate FSO-MMW links operating at a MMW frequencies near 40GHz in foggy environments.