Coherent optical binary polarisation shift keying heterodyne system in the free-space optical turbulence channel

In this paper, analytical and simulation results for the bit error rate (BER) performance and fading penalty of a coherent optical binary polarization shift keying (2PolSK) heterodyne system adopted for a free space optical (FSO) communication link modeled as the log-normal and the negative exponential atmospheric turbulence channels are presented. The conditional and unconditional BER expressions are derived, demonstrating the comprehensive similarity between the 2PolSK and the binary frequency shift keying (2FSK) schemes with regards to the system sensitivity. The power penalty due to the non-ideal polarization beam splitter (PBS) is also analyzed. The receiver sensitivity employing 2PolSK is compared with other modulation schemes in the presence of turbulence and the phase noise. The results show that 2PolSK offers improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) performance compared to the binary amplitude shift keying (2ASK)

European H2020 Project WORTECS Wireless Mixed Reality Prototyping

This paper presents European collaborative project WORTECS objectives and reports on the development of several radio and optical wireless prototypes and a demonstrator targeting mixed reality (MR) application. The aim is to achieve a net throughput of up to Tbps in an indoor heterogeneous network for the MR use case, which seems to be a high throughput "killer application" beyond 5G. A special routing device is associated with the demonstrator to select the most suitable wireless access technology. Post introduction to the project, an overview of the demonstrator is presented with details of the current progress of the prototypes

Optimal WDM Power Allocation via Deep Learning for Radio on Free Space Optics Systems

Radio on Free Space Optics (RoFSO), as a universal platform for heterogeneous wireless services, is able to transmit multiple radio frequency signals at high rates in free space optical networks. This paper investigates the optimal design of power allocation for Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) transmission in RoFSO systems. The proposed problem is a weighted total capacity maximization problem with two constraints of total power limitation and eye safety concern. The model-based Stochastic Dual Gradient algorithm is presented first, which solves the problem exactly by exploiting the null duality gap. The model-free Primal-Dual Deep Learning algorithm is then developed to learn and optimize the power allocation policy with Deep Neural Network (DNN) parametrization, which can be utilized without any knowledge of system models. Numerical simulations are performed to exhibit significant performance of our algorithms compared to the average equal power allocation

Experimental characterization and mitigation of turbulence induced signal fades within an ad hoc FSO network

Optical beams propagating through the turbulent atmospheric channel suffer from both the attenuation and phase distortion. Since future wireless networks are envisaged to be deployed in the ad hoc mesh topology, this paper presents the experimental laboratory characterization of mitigation of turbulence induced signal fades for two ad hoc scenarios. Results from measurements of the thermal structure constant along the propagation channels, changes of the coherence lengths for different turbulence regimes and the eye diagrams for partially correlated turbulences in free space optical channels are discussed. Based on these results future deployment of optical ad hoc networks can be more straightforwardly planned

Saturation in cascaded optical amplifier free-space optical communication systems

The performance of a free-space optical (FSO) communication system in a turbulent atmosphere employing an optical amplifier (OA) cascade to extend reach is investigated. Analysis of both single and cascaded OA FSO communication links is given and the implications of using both adaptive (to channel state) and non-adaptive decision threshold schemes are analysed. The benefits of amplifier saturation, for example in the form of effective scintillation reduction when a non-adaptive decision threshold scheme is utilised at the receiver for different atmospheric turbulence regimes, are presented. Monte Carlo simulation techniques are used to model the probability distributions of the optical signal power, noise and the average bit error rate due to scintillation for the cascade. The performance of an adaptive decision threshold is superior to a non-adaptive decision threshold for both saturated and fixed gain preamplified receivers and the ability of a saturated gain OA to suppress scintillation is only meaningful for system performance when a non-adaptive decision threshold is used at the receiver. An OA cascade can be successfully used to extend reach in FSO communication systems and specific system implementations are presented. The optimal cascade scheme with a non-adaptive receiver would use frequent low gain saturated amplification

Performance evaluation of turbulence-accentuated interchannel crosstalk for hybrid fibre and free-space optical wavelength-division-multiplexing systems using digital pulse-position modulation

A hybrid fibre and free-space optical communication link using digital pulse-position modulation (DPPM) in a wavelength-division-multiplexing system is proposed. Such a system, which could provide a power efficient, robust and flexible solution to high-speed access networks, is a contender for a passive optical network solution and could readily be deployed in areas with restrictions in optical fibre installation, or alternatively as a disaster recovery network. Interchannel crosstalk and atmospheric turbulence are major impairments in such a system and could combine in some cases to degrade the system. Both impairments are investigated here and the results are presented in the form of bit error probability, required optical transmission power and power penalties. Depending on the position of the interferer relative to the desired user, power penalties of about 0.2–3.0 dB for weak turbulence and above 20 dB for strong turbulence regimes are reported for bit error rate of 10−6. DPPM scheme with a coding level of 2 show about 2 dB improvements over on–off-keying scheme

Error rate and ergodic capacity of RF-FSO system with partial relay selection in the presence of pointing errors

This paper presents an analysis of a multiple dual-hop relaying system, which is composed of km-class radio frequency (RF)-free-space optical (FSO) links. Partial relay selection based on outdated channel state information (CSI) is employed in order to select active relay for further transmission. Amplify-and-forward relaying protocol is utilized. The RF links are assumed to be subject to Rayleigh fading, and the FSO links are influenced by both Gamma–Gamma atmospheric turbulence and pointing errors. On the basis of our previously derived expression for cumulative distribution function of the equivalent signal-to-noise ratio of the whole system, we derive novel analytical expressions for the average bit-error rate (BER) and ergodic capacity that are presented in terms of the Meijer’s G-function and extended generalized bivariate Meijer’s G-function, respectively. The numerical results are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations. Considering the effect of time-correlation between outdated CSI and actual CSI related to the RF channel at the time of transmission, the average BER and the ergodic capacity dependence on various system and channel parameters are observed and discussed. The results illustrate that the temporal correlation between outdated and actual CSI has strong effect on system performance, particularly on BER values, when FSO hop is influenced by favorable conditions