Barnet Schmidt

Free-space optical (FSO) networks – which transmit information through the atmosphere using lightwaves with no guided wave media (such as fiber optics) are an exciting area in wireless communications. Optical communications holds the promise of interference and jamming free, extreme bandwidth, secure, and reliable communications. Many FSO links can share the same physical space without interference and thus are not subject to regulatory considerations (FCC, etc.) with which radio systems must comply. FSO systems, unlike their guided wave counterparts, are subject to a host of impairments that arise in the atmosphere. Such impairments, including weather-related attenuation, turbulence, fading, scintillation, dispersion, and others frequently place severe constraints upon transmission distance, data capacity, and error rate. Hybrid wireless networks, combining FSO systems with radio links, can provide the best of both worlds. Under poor atmospheric optical conditions, where FSO transmission is impaired, traffic can be offloaded from the FSO to the radio links. In conditions of poor radio propagation, such as multipath and fading experienced by mobile users, traffic can be transferred from the radio to the FSO links. In this talk we will discuss a novel performance monitoring (PM) method for hybrid FSO/RF systems that exploits the theoretical and practical information capacity of the two types of links. This is in contrast with current techniques that utilize physical and link layer parameters (error rates, SNR/OSNR, retransmissions, etc.). It is demonstrated that the capacity based PM method provides superior prediction of impending link failures due to degradation in the optical and/or radio propagation conditions with sufficient advance warning for a network management system (NMS) to reliably balance the traffic load to operating links

Biography: Barnet M. Schmidt is a Principal Systems Engineer at United Technologies Aerospace Systems, Inc., in Totowa NJ. In this capacity he manages the design and development of advanced miniaturized high-performance hybrid inertial and GPS navigation systems used in a wide range of aircraft, spacecraft, munitions, land and marine vehicles. Previously, Barnet was a Senior Principal Scientist with ITT Exelis, Inc., where he oversaw the signal processing and information security architecture of ITT’s range of encrypted, spread-spectrum radio systems and combat identification systems and managed the evolution of new features and technology for DoD, NASA, and FAA customers. His career with BAE Systems as lead signal processing engineer for wideband, secure, on-the-move networking waveforms received the Chairman’s Award for this work. Barnet’s formative career spanning 23 years as Member of Technical Staff at Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T) Bell Laboratories, AT&T R&D, and Bell Communications Research includes lead architectural positions on high capacity optical networking systems, free-space optical transmission systems, and network operations support systems. Barnet holds five U.S. Patents, has several published papers in IEEE journals and the Journal of Optical Communications and Networking, is a Senior Member of IEEE, a member of Sigma Xi, and an Honorary Citizen of Boys’ Town. He received the B.E., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Engineering Physics from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, a Certificate in Computer Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University, and completed the Advanced Study Program in Communications Engineering and Signal Processing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Barnet has been an invited speaker at the IEEE MTT/APS society symposia, AT&T Network Security Research Center, and MIT Lincoln Laboratories.

Address:New Jersey, United States

Barnet Schmidt

Biography:

Address:New Jersey, United States

Barnet Schmidt

Biography:

Address:New Jersey, United States