Reliability Analysis of a Fault-Tolerant Full-Duplex Optical Wireless Communication Transceiver

Optical wireless communication (OWC) has emerged as a promising solution to the radio spectrum crunch. OWC technology requires more access points (APs) compared to other wireless technologies, making it crucial to have reliable OWC APs to ensure low repair rates and optimal network availability. To address this, our paper provides methods to enhance the reliability of duplex OWC AP transceivers and calculates their reliability parameters. The transceiver design consists of several independent modules, and we calculate the failure in time (FIT) for each module using MTBF calculator software and component datasheets. Our reliability analysis includes two methods: mean time between failure (MTBF) calculations using reliability block diagrams and Markov chain modeling. The former identifies modules with a high failure rate and determines the system’s cumulative downtime or repair time, while the latter accounts for the repair rates of individual modules for availability calculations. Both methods complement each other and provide insight into fault-tolerant system designs. Furthermore, we perform a life cycle cost analysis of the proposed fault-tolerant transceiver designs to facilitate appropriate design choices for different applications.