An optical communication transmitter (13), receiver (15), and transceiver
(17) having distinctive retro-reflective elements (30) and/or reflectivity
that can be modulated. In one embodiment, the retro-reflective elements (30)
can have different shapes or patterns (32), irrespective of rotation or
size. In another embodiment, the retro-reflective elements can have their reflectivity
modulated (42) to have a distinctive pattern in time. The solution also
provides the capability to direct a remote optical receiver (15) to an available
port (17) with an appropriate FOV. In the case where retro-reflective elements
are only shape distinctive, a method may be used to direct the remote OWLink (15)
to an appropriate port (17) of the hub (54). In addition to the hub
ports (17) used for data links, additional hub ports called command ports
(60) are added that are only used during the initial link setup of remote
units. The hub (54) contains enough command ports (60) such that
one command port covers each possible FOV. All command ports contain the same retro-reflective
element shape that is very distinct from other hub shapes, e.g. the largest.