Pointing error effects on performance of free-space optical communication systems using SC-QAM signals over atmospheric turbulence channels

Abstract

In this paper, we theoretically analyze pointing error effects on performance of free-space optical (FSO) communication systems using subcarrier intensity quadrature amplitude modulation (SC-QAM) signals over atmospheric turbulence channels. Unlike previous studies, we take into account both atmospheric turbulence channels and the pointing error effect. In order to model atmospheric turbulence channels, we employ a log-normal distribution for weak-to-moderate turbulent condition and a gamma–gamma distribution for strong turbulent condition. Moreover, we study the pointing error effect by taking into account the influence of beamwidth, aperture size and jitter variance. In addition, we use a combination of these models to analyze the combined effect of atmospheric turbulence and pointing error to FSO/SC-QAM systems. Finally, we derive analytical expressions to evaluate the average symbol error rate (ASER) performance of such systems. Numerical results present the impact of pointing error on the performance of FSO/SC-QAM systems and how we use proper values of aperture size and beamwidth to improve the performance of such systems. In addition, simulation results of FSO/SC-QAM performance over strong atmospheric turbulence and pointing errors show that the closed-form expression can provide a precision for evaluating ASER of such systems.