Method of forming optical radiation beams for free-space optical communication systems

The present invention relates to beam formation for free-space optical communication systems. The improved free-space optical communication systems can be used for two-way information transfer between remote objects without any wires and/or optical fibers for connection of these objects, including the case when there are many objects taking part in the information exchange, e.g. for organization of a point-to-multipoint exchange, i.e., a two-way information exchange between a base station transceiver terminal and several subscribers. The inventive beam forming technique enables use of multimode optical fibers to couple a modulated optical beam from a radiation source to an optical emitting antenna, for free-space communications. The disclosure teaches a methodology for determining the angular and frequency spectrum parameters of the optical energy applied to the fiber as well as the parameters of the fiber so as to smooth speckle-pattern caused by multimode interference and to provide a speckle-pattern contrast at or below a maximum value at which free-space communication is most efficient.