Fog resilient optical camera communication using wavelength division multiplexing

Maintaining reliable performance of optical camera communication (OCC) in low visibility scenarios, such as dense fog, is challenging due to light scattering and attenuation. Here, we present a side-emitting fiber-based OCC system that performs below the forward error correction (FEC) limit in visibilities close to five meters, corresponding to a propagation loss of almost 4 dB/m. We use an RGB laser source instead of a conventional LED source, resulting in a significantly brighter image on the camera and enabling three-channel wavelength-division multiplexing. We prove the robustness of the proposed OCC system with measured bit error rate (BER) of 1.8 × 10^-4 to 1.6 × 10^-3 for visibilities of 20.8 down to 4.5 m, respectively, all BER values below the FEC limit. Our results show application potential in areas with low visibility where reliable OCC can ensure human safety.