Fading probability density function of free-space optical communication channels with pointing error

A free-space optical (FSO) communication system that does not implement compensation strategies for the effects of beam wander may experience deep long-term channel fades or even severe communication outage when the laser spot wanders away from the receiver aperture due to the effects of atmospheric turbulence. The impacts of laser beam diverging angles on channel fading probability density function (pdf) and on bit-error-rate (BER) performance of both uncoded and coded FSO communication systems are studied for different receiver aperture sizes and propagation distances. The optimal diverging angles are determined according to the average uncoded and coded BER for both uncoded and coded system, respectively. For a fast-tracked FSO communication system, a focused beam always provides better channel fading, coded BER, and uncoded BER than beams with larger diverging angles. For an untracked system, smaller beam diverging angels have better BER performance and lower channel fading for short distances when beam wander is small compared with the receiver aperture size, and larger beam diverging angles are preferred for longer distances when beam wander becomes significant. The optimal beam diverging angles of the coded FSO communication systems are smaller than those of the uncoded systems.

Relay-assisted cooperative free space optical (FSO) communication system is a powerful technique, which offers advantages like fading mitigation and significant gain in spatial diversity due to shorter transmission hops. Even so, it can be hampered by jamming activities which in turn degrade the overall system performance. In this paper, the effect of relay jamming in the decode-and-forward (DF) protocol based cooperative FSO communication system, is introduced and studied thoroughly. The probability density function (pdf) of a random variable containing mixture of the negative exponential and Gaussian random variables is derived. The error performance of the considered FSO system is analysed over this new kind of additive mixture noise for different probabilities of jamming. By utilizing the derived pdf, a closed-form expression of the average bit error rate (BER) of the DF FSO relaying is obtained. A comparison of the BER performance of maximum-likelihood (ML) detector and a derived threshold based detector is also provided. It is observed that the derived threshold based detector offers almost similar performance as that of the ML detector. A thorough numerical study is also provided by considering different pointing error parameters of jammer's and user's channels.

Free space optical (FSO) communication system is a groundbreaking technology in the field of communication systems. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), on the other hand, currently being used in fifth-generation (5G) wireless systems, is a powerful technique for establishing communication for multiple users using the same time and frequency resources. In this paper, the performances of NOMA and orthogonal multiple access (OMA) in an FSO-based communication system are studied. In the FSO communication system, two base station units are considered to be connected to a central unit for FSO backhauling using an uplink-fixed NOMA scheme. Bit error rate (BER), ergodic capacity, and energy efficiency (EE) performances of the NOMA-based FSO system are studied and compared with an OMA-based FSO system. It is found that the NOMA-based system provides approximately 10% of the ergodic capacity gain and increases EE by 37%-60% for a given BER compared to the OMA-based system.

This paper presents a constructive discussion and inclusive review on advancements in the coded modulation free-space optical (FSO) communication system and corresponding techniques. These techniques mainly include channel model, forward error correction (FEC) and modulation schemes. Firstly, a complete view of FSO system is presented which contains the description, the current research situation along with the advantages over the traditional radio frequency (RF) wireless communication and fiber optical communications. Then, the channel model, FEC, modulation schemes and complete system of coded modulation FSO are analyzed successively. At last, the review work of coded modulation FSO system is summarized and further improvements are prospected.

In this paper, a rate-adaptive free-space optical (FSO) communication system using systematic Raptor codes is investigated based on experimental data measured over a 1.87 km terrestrial FSO link in different weather conditions. Using Raptor codes, the FSO communication system can adapt to the channel gain fluctuations caused by atmospheric turbulence and/or adverse weather conditions. To alleviate the burden of synchronizing between transmitter and receiver, messages are packetized and sent in sequence. For each packet, a cyclic-redundancy code (CRC) is added resulting in an effective packet erasure channel (PEC). Using experimental data and on-off-keying (OOK) modulation, the performance of the rate-adaptive FSO system is evaluated at different signaling rates. While an uncoded FSO system fails to efficiently operate during adverse weather conditions, the rate-adaptive technique provides reliable FSO communication under clear and rainy weather conditions.

SER performance investigation of a MPPM relay-aided FSO system with three decision thresholds over EW fading channel considering pointing errors

Clouds are key driver in the performance of free space optical communication (FSOC) systems. Clouds are composed of liquid water and/or ice crystals and depending on the physical thickness can produce atmospheric fades easily exceeding 10 dB. In these more common cases, impacts on FSOC systems may be severe. On the other hand, there are times when cloud fades may be as low as 1 or 2 dB as a result of thin, ice crystal based cirrus clouds. In these cases, the impacts on FSOC communication collectors may be limited. The ability to characterize the distribution and frequency of clouds are critical in order to understand and predict atmospheric impacts. A cloud detection system has been developed and applied to produce high resolution climatologies in order to investigate these impacts. The cloud detection system uses geostationary, multi-spectral satellite imagery at horizontal resolutions up to one kilometer and temporal resolutions up to fifteen minutes. Multispectral imagery from the visible wavelengths through the longwave infrared is used to produce individual cloud tests which are combined to produce a composite cloud analysis. The result represents a high spatial and temporal resolution climatology that can be used to derive accurate Cloud Free Line of Sight (CFLOS) statistics in order to quantify atmospheric effects on optical communication systems. The Lasercom Network Optimization Tool (LNOT) is used along with a mission CONOPS and the cloud database to find configuration of geographically diverse ground sites which provide a high availability system.

The free space optical (FSO) communication system has attracted many researchers from different countries, owning to its advantages such as high security, high speed and anti-interference. Among all kinds of the channels of the FSO communication system, the atmosphere channel is very difficult to deal with for two typical disadvantages at least. The one is the scintillation of the optical carrier intensity caused by the atmosphere turbulence and the other is the multipath effect by the optical scattering. A lot of studies have shown that the MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology can overcome the scintillation of the optical carrier through the atmosphere effectively. So the background of this paper is a MIMO system which includes multiple optical transmitting antennas and multiple optical receiving antennas. A number of particles such as hazes, water droplets and aerosols exit in the atmosphere widely. When optical carrier meets these particles, the scattering phenomenon is inevitable, which leads to the multipath effect. As a result, a optical pulse transmitted by the optical transmitter becomes wider, to some extent, when it gets to the optical receiver due to the multipath effect. If the information transmission rate is quite low, there is less relationship between the multipath effect and the bit error rate (BER) of the communication system. Once the information transmission rate increases to a high level, the multipath effect will produce the problem called inter symbol inference (ISI) seriously and the bit error rate will increase severely. In order to take the advantage of the FSO communication system, the inter symbol inference problem must be solved. So it is necessary to use the channel equalization technology. This paper aims at deciding a equalizer and designing suitable equalization algorithm for a MIMO free space optical communication system to overcome the serious problem of bit error rate. The reliability and the efficiency of communication are two important indexes. For a MIMO communication system, there are two typical equalization methods. The first method, every receiving antenna has an independent equalizer without the information derived from the other receiving antennas. The second, the information derived from all of the receiving antennas mixes with each other, according to some definite rules, which is called space-time equalization. The former is discussed in this paper. The equalization algorithm concludes training mode and non training mode. The training mode needs training codes transmitted by the transmitter during the whole communication process and this mode reduces the communication efficiency more or less. In order to improve the communication efficiency, the blind equalization algorithm, a non training mode, is used to solve the parameter of the equalizer. In this paper, firstly, the atmosphere channel is described focusing on the scintillation and multipath effect of the optical carrier. Then, the structure of a equalizer of MIMO free space optical communication system is introduced. In the next part of this paper, the principle of the blind equalization algorithm is introduced. In addition, the simulation results are showed. In the end of this paper, the conclusions and the future work are discussed.

Free-space optical (FSO) communication systems employ unguided light beams propagating through the atmosphere to carry a large volume of data. The reliability of such data transfer can be hampered by various atmospheric effects. Based on an analytical model of a differential phase-shift keying FSO system through exponentiated Weibull turbulence, we investigate the effectiveness of beam width optimization and improved beam alignment, along with aperture averaging on the average channel capacity. Our results show significant signal deterioration produced due to the aerosol-induced optical turbulence, which substantially shadows the performance gain achieved through beam width optimization. Strong aerosol-induced atmospheric heating and the consequent enhanced optical scintillations result in reduction of the channel capacity by as much as 50% of its value when these effects are not considered or negligible. FSO systems are more resilient to aerosol-induced optical turbulence when the normalized beam width is less, and the average channel capacity can be significantly improved by improved beam alignment. These variations are weakly dependent under poor transmitter-receiver alignment conditions. Furthermore, the receiver aperture has a strong control on the link performance. While FSO systems with higher magnitude of normalized beam width have improved performance under all aperture diameter conditions; for a given beam configuration, large aperture diameter ensures a significant improvement in the link performance due to reduction in effects of scintillations.

In this study, Mie and Rayleigh scattering in free space optics (FSO) communication systems were investigated in terms of the atmospheric attenuation. Because of the movement of the Earth, the communication distance and surrounding gas densities are inconsistent in each region. This change leads to atmospheric attenuation and then data losses and inefficient communication in FSO occur. Therefore, the density change and distance must be calculated in each communication once the data is transmitted. In the literature, it was observed that the atmospheric attenuation is regarding some FSO communication parameters such as transmission distance, visibility, and scatter particle size distribution, the number of particles per unit volume, scatter cross-sectional area, and wavelength. Besides, in real-time communication, it is necessary to update FSO parameters simultaneously. However, this updating process for all parameter takes a long time to adapt to a new position. This paper proposes the design of the experiment method (Doe) to determine the severity of the FSO parameters. And Taguchi’s Doe method allows analyzing of FSO communication system parameters to avoid long calculation time. Results show that the proposed method helps in understanding the priorities of the parameters in FSO and reducing the updating time.

Performance of free space optical communication systems over exponentiated Weibull atmospheric turbulence channel for PPM and its derivatives

In this paper, we propose a simultaneous fine tracking and signal detection subsystem based on QD (Quadrant Detector) for FSO (Free Space Optical communication) system in 1550nm without beacon. Then we test the sensitivity, resolution, SNR characteristics and the influence the size of light spot on QD by building an indoor experiment. We select 1550nm waveband which suffers relatively less from background radicalization and atmospheric channel as the waveband of transmitter and receiver, also our selection catered for the trend of FSO system. We use the same QD for both fine tracking and signal detection for FSO in our design. Besides we use the scheme without beacon beam, for which we reduce the use of a beacon laser source, so we can obtain weight reduction and size decrease which is very important for FSO system.

The performance of a free space optical (FSO) communication system is significantly affected by various atmospheric turbulence conditions and pointing errors (PEs) apart from the additive noise, which is assumed to be Gaussian. Optical pre-amplifiers are an essential component of FSO systems for improving the receiver sensitivity. However, optical pre-amplification results in amplified spontaneous emission (ASE), which dominates the receiver thermal and shot noises. The square law photodetection process at the receiver in a FSO system necessitates the consideration of chi-square statistics for the decision variable contrary to the Gaussian approximation that is widely used in the literature. In this paper, we evaluate the bit error rate (BER) performance of a FSO system assuming non-return-to-zero on–off keying modulation in the presence of ASE noise under weak, moderate to strong, and very strong atmospheric turbulence regimes and PEs. We also derive asymptotic BER expressions for the considered FSO system for large values of the signal-to-noise ratio in terms of simple elementary functions. Further insight into the system is provided by performing a diversity analysis.

The beam motion is one of the main causes for major power loss which severely degrades the performance of the Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) system. Designing a suitable controller to correct the beam motion to increase the beam stability at a point becomes significant. This paper presents an investigation on the performance of two types of controller designed for aiming a laser beam to be at a particular spot under dynamic disturbances generated at the transmitter. The experimental nonlinear input---output data mapping is used as the principal components for the controller design. The first design is based on the Taguchi method while the second is the artificial neural network--cognitive method. These controllers process the beam pointing (beam location) information from an opto-electronic position detector and then generate the necessary outputs to steer the beam with fast steering mirror. Conceptually, the controller design problem is addressed with looking the position error information to decide the level of nonlinear static output map for generating the correction control information. The pipelined-parallel architecture of both controllers are developed in a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and installed at the receiver station. Evidence of the suitability and the effectiveness of the proposed controller in terms of prediction exactness, response to impulse, scintillation, Q-factor and bit error rate are provided through experimental results obtained from the 155 Mbps FSOC data link set-up established for the horizontal range of 0.5 km at an altitude of 15.25 m.

Massive deployment of free space optical (FSO) communication systems in future optical access networks will use wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology to leverage extended reach and enhanced user capacity. An analytical framework for the estimation of outage probability in a turbulence‐affected WDM FSO system is presented in this study. The authors derive simplified expressions of the probability of outage in the presence of turbulence‐accentuated interchannel crosstalk, and show how design parameters such as the FSO link length, demultiplexer adjacent channel rejection and receiver aperture diameter affect the performance of the system. Numerical results show that the outage probability due to irradiance fluctuation is worsened in WDM FSO systems by the effects of turbulence‐affected interchannel crosstalk signals. Specifically, the average crosstalk power and the degree of irradiance fluctuations on the crosstalk set a limit on the outage probability performance of the system which appears in the form of outage floors.