Barriers and Possibilities to Enabling of Innovative Potential of Breakthrough Technologies: Case of Photonics

The growth of yearly globally generated information will challenge technology companies to create new data transfer solutions and technologies. One of such technology is Free Space Optics, which is based on point-to-point IR light data transfer and has already found its application in space. In the course of the work Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the chosen applications (space, mobile and atmospheric communications) were identified with the help of experts. Later TRL assessment results were used in expert surveying, the goal of which was to evaluate importance of each barrier and possibility to widespread adoption. The results of the survey allowed for creation of FSOs role in communication scenarios. The first scenario assumes that FSO is not proposed for 5G and that IoT will not greatly increase the amount of data created and needed to be transmitted. The second scenario is based on the results obtained during expert interviews and expert surveying and assume the adoption of the most probable FSO applications early in the next decade. The third scenario forecasts early technology components breakthroughs.