BER and Channel Capacity Performance of an FSO Communication System over Atmospheric Turbulence with Different Types of Noise.

Zixuan Xu,Guanjun Xu,Zhengqi Zheng

doi:10.3390/s21103454

Abstract

The propagation performance of a free-space optical (FSO) communication system in an atmospheric environment is restricted and degraded due to the influence of atmospheric turbulence. In this paper, both the lognormal and Gamma–Gamma channel models are employed to characterize this turbulence under weak-to-strong conditions. In addition, the average bit error rate and average channel capacity of an FSO communication system under the influence of background noise, thermal noise and quantum noise (resulting from the environment, the device, manual operation, etc.) are considered. Moreover, the comparison of system performance under different turbulence conditions and various noises are conducted. Simulation results reveal that thermal noise has a dominant effect on the FSO system. In addition, both the channel parameters and the system parameters have a significant influence on the performance of an FSO communication system.

Highlights

Free-space optical (FSO) communication has attracted considerable attention due to its advantages of lower cost, higher data rates, and higher security for many wireless communication applications [1,2]
Several probability distribution functions (PDFs) have been proposed for various channel models to characterize the fading process of the optical signal in atmospheric turbulence
It can be observed that the average bit error rate (BER) increases and the average capacity decreases with an increase in the temperature

Summary

Introduction

Free-space optical (FSO) communication has attracted considerable attention due to its advantages of lower cost, higher data rates, and higher security for many wireless communication applications [1,2]. The simulation and analytical results of the system performance in terms of the average BER and average channel capacity, as influenced by the structure constant and average electrical SNR, is shown in Figure 2a,b, respectively. When only background noise is considered, the average BER and average capacity are 9.5 × 10−14 and 14.72 bps under weak turbulence, respectively, while under moderate turbulence, the average BER and average capacity are 1.4 × 10−6 and 7.22 bps.

Objectives

Discussion

Conclusion