What is scintillation and how do we avoid it?

What is scintillation? 

Scintillation takes place when there are variations in air temperature along the line of sight between two points. or hot air pockets rise and diffract the wireless optical signal/laser beam. These differences in temperature cause what looks like "shimmers" to the human eye.

These shimmers are actually caused by the variation between "hot" and "cold" pockets of air that bounce off of each other, and this causes diffraction of light beams that travel along the line of sight.

For CENTAURI, this diffraction along the path of the laser beams between two devices causes CENTAURI to constantly adapt its tracking to compensate for "Laser Beam Wander" and cases where scintillation is very high, it can distort the beams and cause packet loss, increasing Bit Error Rates.

The most effective way to tackle this issue is by following our guidelines during the site survey and deployment to determine the best possible locations to install the CENTAURI devices.

For example, one should always try to avoid installation close to the ground, near heat vents, or in locations where metallic surfaces may cause reflections that could interfere with CENTAURI's vision systems.

Refer to our Site Survey Guide and best practices documentation for additional information,  here: CENTAURI Site Survey and Site Selection Best Practices.

Prior to deployment, all operators and installers usually receive training on proper site selection and installation, as well.