OWC Front End and OWC System

Abstract

The optical wireless communications (OWC) front end (300) includes a reflective splitter (310) having a controller port (311) for optically coupling to a controller (200) that generates an OWC signal, and the reflective splitter (310) having a plurality of user ports (312) for optically coupling to OWC endpoint devices (400). The reflective splitter (310) is constructed and arranged such that light received at the controller port (311) is passed to one or more of the user ports (312) for transmission to one or more OWC endpoint devices (400) in optical wireless communication with the user port (312), and such that light received at any one of the user ports (312a) is passed to at least one other of the user ports (312b, 312c) for transmission to one or more OWC endpoint devices (400) in optical wireless communication with the user port (312b, 312c).

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an optical wireless communications front-end for use in an optical wireless communications system. [Background technology]

[0002] Optical wireless communication (OWC) refers to a technology in which information is communicated in the form of a signal embedded in light (e.g., visible light or invisible light, e.g., infrared light) emitted by a light source by modulating at least one characteristic of the light. In this context, visible light may be light having a wavelength in the range of 380 nm to 740 nm, and infrared (IR) light may be light having a wavelength in the range of 740 nm to 1.5 mm. It should be understood that there may be some overlap between these ranges. For example, depending on the particular wavelengths used, such technology may also be referred to as coded light, Light Fidelity (LiFi), visible light communication (VLC), or free-space optical communication (FSO).

[0003] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a typical arrangement of a known OWC system 10. The OWC system 10 includes a controller 20 and a number of APs (Access Points) 30a-c. The APs 30 may be incorporated into lighting fixtures, such as ceiling or wall of a room, floor lamps, etc. Each AP 30 includes an optical front end for outputting an OWC signal. The controller 20 is operably coupled to each of the APs 30. As shown in FIG. 1, the controller 20 may also be operably coupled to a network 50, including, for example, the Internet.

[0004] In operation, the controller 20 controls the APs 30 to output respective OWC signals. Specifically, each AP 30 outputs a respective optical beam that is modulated to carry an OWC signal. The beam output by a given AP 30 defines the field of view (FoV) of that AP 30 (illustrated with dotted lines in FIG. 1). The FoV generally depends on the environment in which the AP 30 is installed and may overlap.

[0005] Also shown in FIG. 1 is a user 40 having an endpoint device 41 (EP). Examples of the EP 41 include a laptop, a smartphone, a tablet computer, etc. The EP 41 includes an OWC transceiver (or a separate OWC receiver and OWC transmitter) that allows it to communicate with the OWC network 10 via the AP 30. Specifically, the EP 41 can receive an OWC signal from an AP 30 when it is located within the FoV of the AP 30. In FIG. 1, the EP 41 is located within the FoV of a first AP 30a and is in OWC communication with the first AP 30a. Communication from the EP 41 to the controller 20 may be provided by a non-OWC network (e.g., WiFi) or via the OWC network itself. Summary of the Invention

[0006] According to a first aspect disclosed herein, there is provided an Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) front-end for use with an OWC controller for generating an OWC signal, the OWC front-end comprising: a reflective splitter having a controller port for optically coupling to the controller, the reflective splitter having a plurality of user ports for optically coupling to the OWC endpoint devices; Reflective splitters are light received at the controller port is passed to one or more of the user ports for transmission to one or more OWC endpoint devices in optical communication with the user port; and light received at any one of the user ports is passed for transmission to at least one other of the user ports, as well as one or more OWC endpoint devices in optical communication with that user port; An OWC front end is provided that is constructed and arranged to:

[0007] Because light received at a user port is passed to the other user ports, endpoint devices communicating with the same OWC front-end can communicate directly without going through a controller, greatly improving the scalability of systems in which OWC front-ends are implemented.

[0008] In one example, the reflective splitter is constructed and arranged such that light received at any of the user ports is passed to the controller port for transmission to the controller, providing an "uplink" connection from the endpoint device(s) to the controller.

[0009] In one example, the OWC signal generated by the OWC controller is an infrared OWC signal, and the OWC front end includes a filter positioned to prevent visible light from passing from any of the user ports to any other of the user ports, meaning, for example, that visible light (e.g., a reading light) at the location of one endpoint device is not transmitted to the location of another endpoint device where it could interfere with another user.

[0010] In one example, the OWC front-end includes an actuator arrangement for selectively controlling the amount of light transmitted from the OWC front-end through each of the one or more of the user ports, allowing the intensity of light (e.g., visible light) from each user port to be controlled even though the same intensity of light is received at the controller port.

[0011] In one example, the OWC front end includes at least one optical arrangement optically coupled to each of at least one of the user ports for outputting light from the user port in the form of a respective beam having a field of view for receipt by an endpoint device within the field of view.

[0012] In one example, the OWC system includes an optical amplifier for amplifying the intensity of light passed to each of the user ports before being emitted from the OWC front end for transmission to the one or more OWC endpoint devices.

[0013] In one example, optical amplifiers are arranged to amplify light received from the controller before it is passed to a controller port, which reduces the number of optical amplifiers required, as compared to another example in which, for example, one optical amplifier is provided per user port.

[0014] According to a second aspect disclosed herein, there is provided an OWC system including at least one OWC front-end according to the first aspect and a controller configured and arranged to supply the OWC signal to a controller port of a reflective splitter of each OWC front-end.

[0015] In one example, the controller is configured to control the device based on signals received from the OWC endpoint device via the OWC front end. The controller may operate based on commands received from the endpoint device or from a different external device.

[0016] In one example, the device comprises: Entertainment system, a light source constructed and arranged to provide light to a controller port of the reflective splitter for transmission from the OWC front end via said one or more of the user ports; an actuator arrangement for selectively controlling an amount of light transmitted from the OWC front end through each of the one or more of the user ports; and an optical arrangement for controlling a beam size of each of the light emitted from the OWC front end through each of a plurality of user ports of the reflective splitter; One or more of the following:

[0017] In one example, the controller includes a multiplexer having multiple inputs and an output optically coupled to a controller port of the OWC front-end reflective splitter, the multiplexer constructed and arranged such that light received at any of the inputs is passed to the output and light received at the output is passed to one or more of the inputs. The controller may include multiple signal generators for generating respective OWC signals and for providing the OWC signals to respective inputs of the multiplexer. The signal generators may implement any known multiplexing scheme that allows an endpoint device to extract the individual OWC signals.

[0018] In one example, the OWC signal generated by the OWC controller is an infrared OWC signal.

[0019] In one example, the OWC system includes an optical amplifier for amplifying the intensity of light passed to each of the user ports before emanating from the OWC front end for transmission to the one or more OWC endpoint devices. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0020] To assist in understanding the present disclosure and to show how embodiments may be practiced, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, by way of example. [Figure 1] 1 shows a schematic diagram of a typical arrangement of a known OWC system; [Diagram 2] 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an OWC system according to examples described herein. [Diagram 3] 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example of an OWC system implemented on an aircraft. [Figure 4] 1 illustrates a schematic of an OWC system including various example optional features. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0021] The present disclosure provides an OWC front-end that allows EPs in the FoV of the OWC front-end to communicate with each other via OWC signals without requiring coordination by a controller of the OWC network. This improves scalability since the processing requirements of the controller are significantly reduced since the controller no longer needs to deal with inter-EP communication. Furthermore, each EP only needs an OWC connection with the OWC front-end (which can also be used to communicate with the controller), which means that an EP does not need to be repositioned while in use for communication with another EP or with the controller. This also means that another inter-EP communication modality (i.e., non-OWC communication) is not required. As will be described below, one particularly useful implementation is in the context of large seating arrangements (e.g., in public transportation such as trains or airplanes, or in auditoriums or conference halls, etc.).

[0022] 2 is a schematic diagram of an OWC system 100 according to an example described herein. The OWC system 100 includes a controller 200 and a front end 300. The controller 200 and the front end 300 are connected via an optical fiber 500. Other examples in which there are multiple front ends 300 are described below.

[0023] The controller 200 includes a digital section 210 and an optical section 220 .

[0024] The digital section 210 may be implemented in software running on one or more processors. Among other things, the digital section 210 implements applications 211 for controlling the optical section 220. The applications 211 may include, for example, an entertainment application for an entertainment system, a conferencing application, etc. The applications 211 may control one or more devices such as, for example, a visible light source, an infrared (IR) light source, an ultraviolet (UV) light source, etc., as described below.

[0025] The optical unit 220 is at least partially implemented in hardware for generating an OWC signal (i.e., modulated light). The optical unit 220 includes a plurality of OWC signal generators 221. The signal generators 221 are controllable by the application 211 to generate respective OWC signals. In particular, the application 211 may provide different data to each signal generator 221 to be encoded into the respective OWC signals.

[0026] The optical section 220 also includes a multiplexer 223. The signal generators 221 are optically coupled to the multiplexer (e.g., each signal generator 221 may be optically coupled to a different respective input of the multiplexer 223 as shown in FIG. 2). The multiplexer 223 is configured and arranged to combine the individual signals from the signal generators 221 into a combined signal and provide the combined signal to the optical fiber 500 for transmission to the front-end 300. Preferably, the signal generators 221 generate the different respective signals according to a suitable multiplexing scheme, examples of which include time division multiplexing (TDM), frequency division multiplexing (FDM), or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). This allows a receiving device to extract the relevant signal from the combined signal, as known in the art.

[0027] In this example, the optical section 220 of the controller 200 also includes a receiver 222 for receiving the OWC signal. The receiver 222 is positioned to receive the signal from the front-end 300 via the optical fiber 500. There are various ways in which the receiver 222 can do this. In one example, the receiver 222 may be optically coupled to the optical fiber 500 itself. In another example, the receiver 222 may be operably coupled to an input port of a multiplexer 223, as shown in FIG. 2. In the latter case, the multiplexer 223 functions as a splitter / combiner that additively passes the signal from the optical fiber 500 to all "inputs" of the multiplexer 223.

[0028] Turning now to the front-end 300, the front-end 300 includes a reflective splitter 310 having a controller port 311 and a number of user ports 312. The controller port 311 of the reflective splitter 310 is optically coupled to the controller 200 (i.e., the output of the multiplexer 223) via an optical fiber 500. In this example, there are three user ports 312a-c, but it should be understood that in other examples there may be two user ports, or four or more user ports. In general, the reflective splitter 310 may include any number of user ports 312. For example, the controller 200 may broadcast data (i.e., the same data stream) to any number of receiving devices (EPs) via any number of user ports 312. Alternatively or additionally, the controller 200 may multiplex different data streams for reception by different EPs by the signal generator 221 employing any suitable multiplexing scheme (e.g., the G.VLC standard). A multiplexing scheme may have an upper limit on the number of signals that can be multiplexed (e.g., the G.VLC standard can multiplex up to 16 signals). In such a case, the number of user ports 312 may correspond to this upper limit. However, it should be noted that this is not necessarily the case and the number of user ports 312 can be even higher than this, for example because some users (EPs) may not need a connection for some time.

[0029] In this example, the front end 300 also includes a number of optical arrangements 320 for outputting light from the front end 300. Each user port 312 is optically coupled to a respective optical arrangement 320 for outputting light via the respective user port 312. The purpose of the optical arrangements 320 is to provide improved spatial coverage for the light output from the front end 300. Among other things, each optical arrangement 320 may include one or more lenses for forming the signal received via the respective user port 312 into a light beam. The spatial extent of the beam defines the FoV of the optical arrangement 320. It should be understood that the optical arrangements are optional. In one example, the optical arrangements 320 may be controllable to change the beam size and / or shape of the light emitted by the optical arrangement 320. Among other things, a given light beam has a beam direction and a beam angle (i.e., an angle, typically a solid angle, at which the light is distributed or emitted). The optical arrangements 320 may be controllable to change the beam angle and / or beam direction of each light output.

[0030] Also shown in Fig. 2 are a first user 400a and a second user 400b. The first user 400a has a first EP 410a, and the second user 400b has a second EP 410b. In the example of Fig. 2, the first EP 410a is located within the FoV of the first optical arrangement 320a, and the second EP 410b is located within the FoV of the third optical arrangement.

[0031] The reflective splitter 310 is constructed and arranged as follows: i. light received at the controller port 311 is passed to one or more of the user ports 312 (e.g., all of the user ports 312); and ii. Light received at any one of the user ports 312 is passed to at least one other of the user ports 312.

[0032] The former (i) provides downlink communication from the controller 200 to the EPs 410, and the latter (ii) provides direct peer-to-peer communication between the EPs 410. Downlink communication may be used, for example, to provide media content from an entertainment system of the application 211 to the EPs 410. Direct peer-to-peer communication may be used, for example, for an EP 410 to send data (e.g., one or more files) to another EP 410.

[0033] Uplink communication from the EP 410 to the controller 200 may be provided by a non-OWC connection (e.g., WiFi). However, alternatively or additionally, the uplink communication may be provided by the OWC system 100 itself, with the optical fiber 500 providing a bidirectional information flow. In such a case, the reflective splitter 310 is also configured and arranged to pass light received at any of the user ports 312 to the controller port 311, and the optical section 220 of the controller 200 includes the receiver 222 described above. This has the advantage that no additional hardware (e.g., a WiFi controller) is required. The uplink communication may be used, for example, to enable the EP 410 to provide commands to the application 211, for example to control an entertainment system.

[0034] As mentioned above, one particularly useful implementation is in the context of large seating arrangements (e.g., in public transportation such as trains or airplanes, or in auditoriums or conference halls, etc.). In such arrangements, the seats are subdivided into sections (e.g., rows or areas). It is important to be able to provide each user with a secure, high-performance connection to the controller 200. In these contexts, OWC communication may be preferable over other communication technologies (e.g., radio frequency (RF) communication such as WiFi, LTE, 5G, ZigBee, Bluetooth, etc.) because such technologies generate relatively high field strengths that may affect users in the environment (even if they themselves are not interacting with the network).

[0035] A particular example of a context in which the arrangement may be used is a passenger seat on an airplane. The application 211 of the controller 200 may implement an entertainment system in which media content (e.g., images, videos, games) is transmitted to the EP 410 via the OWC system 100.

[0036] Figure 3 shows a schematic of one example of an OWC system 100 implemented on an aircraft. In this example, there are three front ends 300a-c. There are three optical sections 220a-c of a controller 200, each providing a respective combined signal to one of the front ends 300a-c. An application 211 controls each of the optical sections 220a-c. Like components function as described above, and some components are not shown in Figure 3 for clarity.

[0037] In this example, there are eight seats, labeled a-h, arranged in a row. The row is divided into three sections, with seats a and b forming one side section, seats c-f forming a center section, and seats g and h forming the other side section. For purposes of illustration, a first EP 410a is located in seat b (e.g., operated by a user sitting in seat b), a second EP 410b is located in seat c, and a third EP 410c is located in seat d. It should be understood that in other examples, the seating arrangement may be different (e.g., there may be more rows with different section sizes) and there may be more or fewer EPs 410.

[0038] In this example, the first front end 300a includes two optical arrangements that provide OWC coverage for seats a and b, respectively. That is, seat a is within the FoV of a first one of the optical arrangements of the first front end 300a, and seat b is within the FoV of a second one of the optical arrangements of the first front end 300a. Similarly, the second front end 300b includes four optical arrangements that provide OWC coverage for seats c-f, respectively, and the third front end 300c includes two optical arrangements that provide OWC coverage for seats g and h, respectively.

[0039] In this example, the second EP 410b and the third EP 410c share a front end 300b and therefore can communicate directly with each other via the OWC system 100. The second EP 410b and the third EP 410c do not share a front end with the first EP 410a and therefore cannot communicate directly with the first EP 410a via the OWC system 100.

[0040] In a specific example, a user of the second EP 410b and a user of the third EP 410c can play a game using the EPs 410b, 410c with reduced lag and / or jitter because data is transmitted directly between the EPs 410b, 410c without going through the controller 200. In another example, a user of the second EP 410b can be streaming video from the controller 200. The video can be sent from the second EP 410b to the third EP 410c via a peer-to-peer connection, which allows both users to watch the same video substantially in sync without the controller 200 having to also provide the video to the third EP 410c.

[0041] This arrangement not only relieves the controller 200 from the need to coordinate communication between the EPs 410, but also provides an easily scalable and adaptable OWC infrastructure. For example, adding another row of seats to the arrangement of Figure 3 requires only adding a new front end 300 for each section of that row and appropriately reconfiguring the controller 200. Of course, additional controllers 200 may be provided to control different sets of front ends 300, e.g., in an airplane, there may be one controller 200 per seat class section.

[0042] FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram of an OWC system 100 including various example optional features, which are described in turn below.

[0043] In one example, one or more visible light sources 600 may provide visible light via the front end(s) 300. The visible light source 600 may be provided in the optics section 220 of the controller 200, as shown in the example of FIG. 4. The visible light source 600 may be arranged, for example, to provide visible light to one of the inputs 221 of the multiplexer 223 for transmission to and output from the front end(s) 300. Alternatively, the visible light source 600 may be provided separately from the controller 200. In either case, however, the visible light source 600 is arranged to provide visible light to the controller port 311 of the reflective splitter 310 for transmission from the front end 300 via the user port 312.

[0044] The visible light provided by visible light source 600 may provide a so-called "reading light", for example in the context of an airplane seating arrangement.

[0045] In one example, one or more ultraviolet (UV) light sources 700 may provide UV light via the front end(s) 300. The UV light source 700 may be provided in the optics section 220 of the controller 200, as shown in the example of FIG. 4. The UV light source 700 may be arranged to provide UV light to one of the inputs 221 of the multiplexer 223 for transmission to and output from the front end(s) 300. Alternatively, the UV light source 700 may be provided separately from the controller 200. In either case, however, the UV light source 700 is arranged to provide UV light to the controller port 311 of the reflective splitter 310 for transmission from the front end 300 via the user port 312.

[0046] In the context of a seating arrangement, the UV light source 700 allows for disinfection within the seating area.

[0047] In one example, a filter 800 may be provided to prevent one or more wavelengths of light from passing between user ports 312. The filter 800 may be configured to block visible light, for example, generated by the visible light source 600. This is advantageous in the context of the present arrangement, as light from each user port 320 may be transmitted to other user ports 320 and therefore may be visible to other users 400, which is undesirable. Alternatively or additionally, the filter 800 may be configured to block UV light generated by the UV light source 700.

[0048] In one example, one or more actuator arrangements 321 may be provided to control the amount of light transmitted from the front end 300 through each of the optical arrangements 320. Examples of suitable actuator arrangements include mechanically actuated filters, or LCDs or electrochromic cells (also known as switchable windows). In the example of Fig. 4, an actuator 321 is provided for each optical arrangement 320 to control the amount of light emitted from that optical arrangement 320. This is advantageous as it allows different amounts of light to be emitted from each optical arrangement, in particular different amounts of visible light from the above-mentioned visible light source 600. The actuator(s) 321 may also be manually operable.

[0049] In one example, the front end 300 and / or the controller 200 may include an optical amplifier arranged to amplify the light generated by the signal generator 221. There are various possibilities regarding the implementation of such an optical amplifier and therefore it is not shown in FIG. 4 for reasons of simplicity. In one example, the optical amplifier may be arranged between the multiplexer 223 and the controller port 311 of the reflective splitter 310. This includes the optical amplifier being included in the controller 200 and / or the optical amplifier being included in the front end 300. In either case, this arrangement means that the optical amplifier amplifies the light generated by the signal generator 221 before it reaches the controller port 311 for transmission to the user port 312 and from the front end 300. If the optical amplifier is implemented in the controller 200, it has the advantage that only a single optical amplifier is required. If the optical amplifier is implemented in the front end 300, it has the advantage that only a single optical amplifier is required per front end 300. In another example, multiple optical amplifiers (i.e., one optical amplifier per user port 312) may be provided to amplify the light output by each user port 312 prior to transmission from the front-end 300. The advantage of this is that each optical amplifier can operate at a lower gain compared to the previous example. In a further example, the optical amplifiers may be implemented as separate devices separate from the controller 200 and the front-end 300, i.e., located elsewhere on the optical cable 500. Finally, it is noted that the above examples are not mutually exclusive; i.e., two or more optical amplifiers may be used according to any two or more of the above examples.

[0050] In one example, the controller 200 may be configured to control external devices based on signals received from the EP 410 via the front end 300. Examples of such external devices include an entertainment system, the visible light source(s) 600, the UV light source(s) 700, the optical arrangement(s) 320, and / or the optical amplifier(s) described above. For example, the controller 200 may receive one or more user commands from the EP 410.

[0051] It should be understood that the processors or processing systems or circuits referred to herein may in fact be provided by a single chip or integrated circuit or multiple chips or integrated circuits, optionally provided as a chipset, application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field programmable gate array (FPGA), digital signal processor (DSP), graphics processing unit (GPU), etc. The single or multiple chips may comprise circuitry (and possibly firmware) for embodying at least one or more data processors, one or more digital signal processors, baseband circuitry, and radio frequency circuitry, which are configurable to operate according to the exemplary embodiments. In this regard, the exemplary embodiments may be implemented, at least in part, by computer software stored in a (non-transitory) memory and executable by a processor or hardware, or by a combination of tangibly stored software and hardware (and tangibly stored firmware).

[0052] As used herein, reference is made to data storage for storing data. This may be provided by a single device or multiple devices. Suitable devices include, for example, hard disks and non-volatile semiconductor memories (including, for example, solid state drives (SSDs)).

[0053] At least some aspects of the embodiments described herein with reference to the drawings include computer processes executed on a processing system or processor, but the invention also extends to computer programs adapted to carry out the invention, in particular computer programs on or in a carrier. The programs may be in the form of object code, such as non-transitory source code, object code, code intermediate source and partially compiled form, or in any other non-transitory form suitable for use in implementing the processes according to the invention. The carrier may be any entity or device capable of carrying a program. For example, the carrier may include a storage medium such as a solid state drive (SSD) or other semiconductor-based RAM, a ROM, e.g. a CD ROM or semiconductor ROM, a magnetic recording medium, e.g. a floppy disk or hard disk, an optical memory device in general, etc.

[0054] The examples described herein should be understood as illustrative of embodiments of the invention. Further embodiments and examples are envisioned. Any feature described with respect to any example or embodiment may be used alone or in combination with other features. In addition, any feature described with respect to any example or embodiment may be used in combination with one or more features of any other example or embodiment, or any combination of any other example or embodiment. Moreover, equivalents and variations not described herein may also be used within the scope of the invention, as defined by the claims.

Claims

1. 1. An optical wireless communications (OWC) front-end for use with an OWC controller for generating an OWC signal, the OWC front-end comprising: a reflective splitter having a controller port for optically coupling to the controller, the reflective splitter having a plurality of user ports for optically coupling to OWC endpoint devices; The reflective splitter comprises: light received at the controller port is passed to one or more of the user ports for transmission to one or more OWC endpoint devices in optical wireless communication with the user port; and light received at any of the user ports is passed for transmission to at least one other of the user ports to one or more OWC endpoint devices in optical wireless communication with the user port; The OWC front end is constructed and arranged to:

2. The OWC front-end of claim 1 , wherein the reflective splitter is constructed and arranged such that light received at any of the user ports is passed to the controller port for transmission to the controller.

3. 3. An OWC front end as described in claim 1 or 2, wherein the OWC signal generated by the OWC controller is an infrared OWC signal, and the OWC front end includes a filter positioned to prevent visible light from passing from any of the user ports to any other of the user ports.

4. 4. An OWC front-end as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the OWC front-end includes an actuator arrangement for selectively controlling the amount of light transmitted from the OWC front-end through each of the one or more of the user ports.

5. 5. The OWC front-end of claim 1, wherein the OWC front-end includes at least one optical arrangement optically coupled to each of at least one of the user ports for outputting light from the user port in the form of a respective beam having a field of view for receipt by an endpoint device within the field of view.

6. The OWC front-end of claim 1 , further comprising an optical amplifier for amplifying the intensity of light passed to each of the user ports before being emitted from the OWC front-end for transmission to the one or more OWC endpoint devices.

7. The OWC front-end of claim 6 , wherein the optical amplifier is arranged to amplify light received from the controller before it is passed to the controller port.

8. 8. An OWC system comprising at least one OWC front-end according to claim 1 and a controller configured and arranged to provide the OWC signal to the controller port of the reflective splitter of each OWC front-end.

9. The OWC system of claim 8 , wherein the controller is configured to control devices based on signals received from OWC endpoint devices via the OWC front-end.

10. The device comprises: Entertainment system, a light source constructed and arranged to provide light to the controller port of the reflective splitter for transmission from the OWC front end via the one or more of the user ports; an actuator arrangement for selectively controlling an amount of light transmitted from the OWC front end through each of the one or more of the user ports; and an optical arrangement for controlling a beam size of each of the light emitted from the OWC front end through each of the plurality of user ports of the reflective splitter; The OWC system of claim 9 , wherein the OWC system is one or more of:

11. 11. The OWC system of claim 8, wherein the controller includes a multiplexer having a plurality of inputs and an output optically coupled to the controller port of the reflective splitter of the OWC front end, the multiplexer constructed and arranged such that light received at any of the inputs is passed to the output and light received at the output is passed to one or more of the inputs.

12. The OWC system according to claim 8 , wherein the OWC signal generated by the OWC controller is an infrared OWC signal.

13. The OWC system of any one of claims 8 to 12, further comprising an optical amplifier for amplifying the intensity of light passed to each of the user ports before being emitted from the OWC front end for transmission to the one or more OWC endpoint devices.

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