Performance analysis of mixed Nakagami- m and Gamma–Gamma dual-hop FSO transmission systems

In this paper, we carry out a unified performance analysis of a dual-hop relay system over the asymmetric links composed of both radio-frequency (RF) and unified free-space optical (FSO) links under the effect of pointing errors. Both fixed and variable gain relay systems are studied. The RF link is modeled by the Nakagami-m fading channel and the FSO link by the Gamma-Gamma fading channel subject to both types of detection techniques (i.e., heterodyne detection and intensity modulation with direct detection). In particular, we derive new unified closed-form expressions for the cumulative distribution function, the probability density function, the moment generating function (MGF), and the moments of the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of these systems in terms of the Meijer's G function. Based on these formulas, we offer exact closed-form expressions for the outage probability (OP), the higher order amount of fading, and the average bit error rate (BER) of a variety of binary modulations in terms of the Meijer's G function. Furthermore, an exact closed-form expression of the end-to-end ergodic capacity is derived in terms of the bivariate G function. Additionally, by using the asymptotic expansion of the Meijer's G function at the high-SNR regime, we derive new asymptotic results for the OP, the MGF, and the average BER in terms of simple elementary functions

Current optical technologies for wireless access

The objective of this paper is to describe recent activities and investigations on free-space optics (FSO) or optical wireless and the excellent results achieved within SatNEx an EU-framework 6th programme and IC 0802 a COST action. In a first part, the FSO technology is briefly discussed. In a second part, we mention some performance evaluation criterions for the FSO. In third part, we briefly discuss some optical signal propagation experiments through the atmosphere by mentioning network architectures for FSO and then discuss the recent investigations in airborne and satellite application experiments for FSO. In part four, we mention some recent investigation results on modelling the FSO channel under fog conditions and atmospheric turbulence. Additionally, some recent major performance improvement results obtained by employing hybrid systems and using some specific modulation and coding schemes are presented

Route diversity analyses for free-space optical wireless links within turbulent scenarios

Free-Space Optical (FSO) communications link performance is highly affected when propagating through the time-spatially variable turbulent environment. In order to improve signal reception, several mitigation techniques have been proposed and analytically investigated. This paper presents experimental results for the route diversity technique evaluations for a specific case when several diversity links intersects a common turbulent area and concurrently each passing regions with different turbulence flows

BPSK subcarrier intensity modulated free-space optical communications in atmospheric turbulence

Free-space optical communications (FSO) propagated over a clear atmosphere suffers from irradiance fluctuation caused by small but random atmospheric temperature fluctuations. This results in decreased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and consequently impaired performance. In this paper, the error performance of the FSO using a subcarrier intensity modulation (SIM) based on a binary phase shift keying (BPSK) scheme in a clear but turbulent atmosphere is presented. To evaluate the system error performance in turbulence regimes from weak to strong, the probability density function (pdf) of the received irradiance after traversing the atmosphere is modelled using the gamma-gamma distribution while the negative exponential distribution is used to model turbulence in the saturation region and beyond. The effect of turbulence induced irradiance fluctuation is mitigated using spatial diversity at the receiver. With reference to the single photodetector case, up to 12 dB gain in the electrical SNR is predicted with two direct detection PIN photodetectors in strong atmospheric turbulence

BER and outage probability of DPSK subcarrier intensity modulated free space optics in fully developed speckle.

In this paper a differential phase shift keying (DPSK) subcarrier intensity modulated (SIM) free space optical (FSO) link is considered in negative exponential atmospheric turbulence environment. To mitigate the scintillation effect, the selection combining spatial diversity scheme (SelC) is employed at the receiver. Bit error rate (BER) and outage probability (Pout) analysis are presented with and without the SelC spatial diversity. It is shown that at a BER of 10-6, a maximum diversity gain 25 dB is predicted. And about 60 dBm signal power is required to achieve an outage probability of 10-6, based on a threshold BER of 10-4

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