Free-space Optical Channel Research Articles

LDPC Decoding Techniques for Free-Space Optical Communications

There has been significant interest in free-space optical (FSO) communication by the research community in recent years. This is due to its high data rate, unlicensed spectrum, low cost, and immense security for FSO systems. Due to these advantages, FSO can have broader applications that extend from terrestrial to satellite communication. Atmospheric turbulence (AT) induced fading is a primary problem in the FSO link since it significantly impairs its performance. Atmospheric turbulence occurs due to the random variation of the air refractive index with time. Several statistical models are introduced to characterize the AT. The Log-normal (LN) model represents weak and moderate turbulence, and the Gamma-Gamma (G-G) model is employed for strong turbulence. These models are used with the effect of weather attenuation, geometric losses, and misalignment errors. One possible solution is channel coding, such as low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. This paper proposed employing Weighted Bit Flipping (WBF) and Implementation Efficient Reliability Ratio Weighted Bit Flipping (IERRWBF) decoding techniques to improve FSO link performance. The results show a superior improvement in the bit error rate (BER) than the uncoded FSO system. In addition, the obtained results prove that the IERRWBF technique is more optimized than WBF from the point of the number of iterations, especially in weak and moderate turbulence FSO channels. In the calculation of decoders processing time, the WBF maintained lower decoding time than the IERRWBF technique, while in higher $E_{b}/N_{o}\text{s}$ , they have the same level. The same response for both techniques in the case of resultant throughput. Finally, both methods are evaluated from the point of convergence. IERRWBF technique achieved faster convergence than WBF in all FSO channels under study.

FSO system performance analysis based on novel Gamma–Chi-square irradiance PDF model

In order to provide a novel analytically traceable free space optics (FSO) channel model for describing turbulence based irradiance fluctuations, following basic scintillation theory principles, we have derived closed-form expression for probability density function (PDF) of a new statistical Gamma–Chi-square model. Further, capitalizing on provided model, error performances of FSO system over on–off keying (OOK) transmission scheme both in the presence of atmospheric turbulence and misalignment fading (pointing error) is investigated. For both cases, the average bit error rate (ABER) at the receiving side of the system is determined in an analytically closed form. The results are graphically presented in order to analyze the impact of different levels of turbulence, as well as other relevant parameters, on the quality of the received signal in the OOK modulated FSO system.

TCP Performance Over Satellite-Based Hybrid FSO/RF Vehicular Networks: Modeling and Analysis

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in Internet access from space assisted by low earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks. In the domain of the last-mile access for the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), hybrid free-space optical (FSO)/radio-frequency (RF) communication has recently attracted worldwide research efforts. While the transmission control protocol (TCP) is the most widely deployed transport protocol on the Internet, its performance in the error-prone environment of LEO satellite-assisted hybrid FSO/RF vehicular networks is not well understood. This paper develops a comprehensive analytical model based on the cross-layer approach for TCP performance, considering the FSO and RF satellite fading channels, modeled by the Gamma-Gamma and Nakagami- m distributions, respectively. The error-control solutions, including the Reed-Solomon (RS) code and Selective repeat automatic repeat request (SR-ARQ), are also employed. Numerical results quantitatively demonstrate the impact of transmission errors at last-mile links and different parameters/settings of error-control solutions on the TCP performance. The paper also supports the selection of proper TCP variants for the considered networks.

Relay-Assisted Satellite QKD Systems using MMW Radio-over-FSO for Vehicular Networks

This paper aims at proposing a novel satellite quantum key distribution (QKD) system for vehicular networks. Quantum key from a satellite (i.e., a trusted node) is transmitted through a free-space optical (FSO) channel to a high-attitude platform (HAP) using radio-over-FSO (RoFSO) technique. HAP playing a role as a relaying node forwards the key to moving vehicles via millimeter-wave (MMW) channel. Key information generated is encoded on MMW subcarrier using binary phase shift keying (BPSK) signaling and then recovered at the receiver thanks to a dual-threshold detector. We derive the mathematical expressions for security analysis of the proposed QKD system in terms of quantum bit error rate and ergodic secret-key rate taking into account the channel loss and receiver noise. The numerical results confirm the feasibility of the proposed QKD system.

Performance of Free-space Optical Communication Systems using Optical Amplifiers under Amplify-forward and Amplify-received Configurations

: In concerning the growth of era digital technology that has on the stage of indutrial revolution 4.0, the demand for broadcasting the information in huge ammount is mandatory and reaching the user into the last mile as well. This urgent demand must be supported with reliable communications platform that meet those growth and development. Free-space optical (FSO) communications is one of the platform that has some potentials to be implemented to meet this demand. In this paper, Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) on FSO that carrying data rate on 80 Gbps is investigated through simulation. The configuration of FSO is setup on the scheme of amplify-forward and amplify-received which each of one is using an optical amplifier. The investigation is seeking the best performance of optical signal amplification between EDFA and SOA under the atmospheric channel. From the simulation, we find that EDFA has better performance than SOA as the optical signal amplification for 8 channels of C-band in order to carry huge information and reaching the last mile user. The maximum of propagation path length under the FSO channel for scheme of amplify-forward and amplify received using EDFA is 1.7 Km where the performance of BER can be achieved at 10-6.

Comprehensive performance analysis of satellite-to-ground FSO/QKD systems using key retransmission

We propose to investigate the performance of a satellite-to-ground quantum key distribution (QKD) system that uses key retransmission as a method for improving the system reliability. We develop analytical frameworks based on two three-dimensional Markov chain models allowing us to comprehensively analyze the proposed system’s performance in terms of key loss rate, link utilization, and delay outage rate. Our performance analysis takes into account the physical layer impairments induced by free-space optical channel and receiver noise. Numerical results quantitatively demonstrate that the performance of satellite-to-ground QKD system is significantly improved due to key retransmission. In addition, the appropriate selection of system parameters corresponding to different turbulence conditions to achieve the best performance improvement is also provided.

Raised cosine/NRZ line coding techniques for upgrading free space optical communication systems through various levels of fog

This study examines raised cosine/NRZ line coding techniques for upgrading free space optical (FSO) communication systems through various levels of fog.The max. Q factors are simulated and estimated for clear air, light fog, and moderate fog weather conditions at a data rate of 20 Gb/s. The optical signal to noise ratio is also measured for different weather conditions. The total power after both FSO channel and avalanche photodiode (APD) photo-detector receiver is estimated by an optical power meter for max. distances.The study shows that the max. propagation distance is extended to 50 kmthrough clear air, 2.25 km through light fog, and 1.6 km through moderate fog with acceptable max. Q factor

Analytical Determination of Thresholds of LDPC Codes in Free Space Optical Channel

Free-space optical (FSO) communication is crucial for the next-generation 5G+ wireless networks. The FSO links suffer from atmospheric-turbulence-induced bit errors. For the increasing link's performance, low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, complemented by the belief-propagation (BP) algorithm, are an excellent option. The bit error rate (BER) of the LDPC code is characterized by a parameter called the threshold. The threshold is the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), after which the BER falls arbitrarily and becomes close to zero. We derive the threshold for the LDPC codes under the BP algorithm for an uncorrelated flat FSO channel. The determination of the FSO channel threshold is a tedious task as the density of the log-likelihood ratio from the FSO channel cannot be assumed as Gaussian and is available only in a numerical form. It, thus, requires testing different values of SNR as a possible threshold systematically. Therefore, we propose the divide and conquer algorithm. The threshold depends on the degree distributions, channel state information (CSI), and the turbulence level. When CSI is known, we obtain the threshold at an SNR of 8.10 dB in high turbulence for a regular (3, 6) LDPC code. This threshold steps up to 12.48 dB when the CSI is unknown at the receiver. We evaluate the threshold values for various degree distributions (regular and irregular LDPC codes) under high, moderate, and low turbulence levels for both channel models (CSI known and unknown at the receiver). We also confirm the derived threshold values with MATLAB simulations.

Bit‐error‐rate performance of high‐order APPM and AOPPM for non‐Kolmogorov gamma–gamma channel FSO communications

AbstractHigh‐order pulse modulations in free space optics (FSO) communication are of practical value, and non‐Kolmogorov gamma–gamma (GG) channel model is the most suitable for FSO channel. However, research on a system combined with the above is rarely reported. In our work, we propose high‐order (4*32 and 4*64) amplitude and pulse position modulation (APPM) and overlapping amplitude and pulse position modulation (AOPPM) FSO communication system under a modified non‐Kolmogorov GG turbulent channel model. Simulation results present that AOPPM is obviously better than APPM in bit‐error‐rate (BER) performance, and BER performance grows with the increase of modulation order (number of pulse positions). The proposed schemes may provide a reference for system design and practical application.

Secret key distillation over satellite-to-satellite free-space optics channel with a limited-sized aperture eavesdropper in the same plane of the legitimate receiver

Conventionally, unconditional information security has been studied by quantum cryptography although the assumption of an omnipotent eavesdropper is too strict for some realistic implementations. In this paper, we study the realistic secret key distillation over a satellite-to-satellite free space optics channel where we assume a limited-sized aperture eavesdropper (Eve) in the same plane of the legitimate receiver (Bob) and determine the secret key rate (SKR) lower bounds correspondingly. We first study the input power dependency without assumptions on Bob's detection scheme before optimizing the input power to determine lower bounds as functions of transmission distances, center frequency or Eve aperture radius. Then we calculate analytical expressions regarding the SKR lower bound and upper bound as transmission distance goes to infinity. We also incorporate specific discrete variable (DV) and continuous variable (CV) protocols for comparison. We demonstrate that significantly higher SKR lower bounds can be achieved compared to traditional unrestricted Eve scenario.

Wavefront Compensation With the Micro Corner-Cube Reflector Array in Modulating Retroreflector Free-Space Optical Channels

In this article, the micro corner-cube reflector array (MCCRA) is considered as the optical retroreflector in the modulating retroreflector (MRR) free-space optical (FSO) channel and its wavefront compensation accompanying with the pseudo phase conjugate optical return wave in the double-pass propagation is investigated by the theoretical analysis and wave-optics (WO) simulation. By WO simulations, we show the impacts of the shape and size of the retroreflector cell, the whole aperture size of the MCCRA, the turbulence condition on the beam spot, the Strehl ratio and the scintillation index of the return wave. Also, we investigate the limitations caused by the phase errors of the MCCRA and the oblique incidence of the optical beam. Finally, the wavefront compensation is demonstrated by the experiments conducted in a laboratory atmospheric chamber.

Polarization Division Multiplexing-Based Hybrid Microwave Photonic Links for Simultaneous mmW and Sub-6 GHz Wireless Transmissions

A new hybrid microwave photonic link based on a polarization division multiplexing Mach-Zehnder modulator (PDM-MZM) is proposed. The link enables co-transmission of millimeter-wave (mmW) and sub-6 GHz wireless signals over a seamless single-mode fiber (SMF) and free-space optics (FSO) channels. Optimization of the chromatic dispersion (CD)-induced power fading regardless of the power fading due to the non-deterministic atmospheric turbulence (AT) is simultaneously demonstrated. Extensive simulation analysis is first presented to examine (i) the impact of CD on mmW (25 GHz) and sub-6 GHz (2.6 GHz) signals, envisioned for the 5th generation networks, and (ii) optimization of CD-induced power fading by changing the phase relations between the optical carrier and optical sidebands in each polarization channel using single tunable polarization controller. A proof-of-concept experiment is finally performed to simultaneously deliver 25 GHz and 2.6 GHz signals with 4/16/64-quadrature amplitude modulation over (i) 20 km SMF and 2 m radio wireless link and (ii) 20 km SMF, 4.2 m FSO (with AT) and 2 m radio wireless links. The optimization of the CD-induced power fading is experimentally verified and link performance shows high tolerance to CD with no power penalties and the measured error vector magnitudes well below the required limits. The predicted bit error rates are also below the forward error correction threshold of $2 \times {10^{ - 4}}$.

Neural Successive Cancellation Polar Decoder With Tanh-Based Modified LLR Over FSO Turbulence Channel

The neural successive cancellation (NSC) decoder with tanh-based modified log-likelihood ratio (LLR) is proposed for reducing the decoding latency of polar codes over free space optical (FSO) turbulence channel. The conventional successive cancellation (SC) decoder is partitioned into multiple sub-blocks, which are replaced by multiple sub neural network (NN) decoders with tanh-based modified LLR. The recursive characteristic of the polar sequences reliability ranking given in 5G standard enables the sub-NN decoder to be uniquely determined by code length and the number of information bits. Confirmed by the simulation, the bit error rate (BER) performance of NSC decoder with tanh-based modified LLR is close to the conventional SC decoder over turbulence channel for the practical-length polar codes. Regarding turbulence-stability, the NSC decoder trained in moderate and strong turbulence conditions have stable performance in a wide range of turbulence conditions. Moreover, in comparison of decoding latency, the NSC decoder with tanh-based modified LLR takes less than 25% time steps of SC decoder in the same code length.

Effect of adverse weather conditions and pointing error on the performance of 2-D WH/TS OCDMA over FSO link

Abstract In this paper, the performance of two-dimensional (2-D) wavelength-hopping/time-spreading (WH/TS) optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) system over free space optical (FSO) channel is analyzed in the presence of pointing error and different weather conditions. Prime code scheme is employed for both wavelength-hopping and time-spreading to address user code-matrix. The operating central wavelength of 1550 nm is considered to demonstrate the bit error rate (BER) performance of the proposed system as a function of various system parameters. The required optical power of the proposed system is determined to maintain a BER value of 10−9. The numerical evaluation interprets that the BER performance is highly dependent on transmission length, transmitted power, pointing error angle as well as the number of simultaneous user. It is also observed that the 2-D OCDMA system over free space needs minimum required optical power in case of rainy atmospheric condition, but it is maximum for foggy atmospheric condition.

Generic evaluation of FSO system over Málaga turbulence channel with MPPM and non‐zero‐boresight pointing errors

Free space optical (FSO) communication channels are affected by fluctuations in irradiance due to atmospheric turbulence and pointing errors. Recently, a generalized statistical model knows as Malaga ( M ) was developed to describe irradiance fluctuations of the beam propagating through a turbulent medium. In this paper, an approximate finite-series probability density function (PDF) for composite M turbulence with pointing errors is verified. Considering multiple pulse-position-modulation (MPPM) with intensity modulation and direct detection, specific closed-form expressions for average symbol error rate (ASER) and outage probability are obtained. Moreover, asymptotic expressions for ASER and outage probability over the Malaga channel with pointing errors are presented. Finally, ASER and outage probability expressions are deduced in three turbulence regimes, strong, moderate, and weak. Therefore, simulation results are given to confirm the accuracy of the proposed expressions. The results show that the optimum beam divergence angle is 1 mrad for zero-boresight displacement and 2 mrad for nonzero-boresight at a distance of 1 km. By increasing the range to 5 km, atmospheric turbulence is found to have the dominant effect over boresight displacement. Moreover, the system performance at the optimized divergence angle is studied in terms of transmit power, normalized boresight, and link distance.

Performance evaluation of AF-relayed mixed FSO/mm-wave-RF link modeled by generalized misalignment and RF fading distributions

Abstract The performance of a generalized mixed free-space-optical (FSO)/millimeter (mm)-wave radio-frequency (RF) two-hop link model is investigated in this work. The first-hop FSO channel considers the influence of path loss, atmospheric turbulence which is modeled by the gamma–gamma (GG)-distribution, and generalized misalignment errors which incorporate the effects of non-zero boresight errors, different jitter standard deviations along the horizontal and vertical directions, and correlation between the horizontal and vertical displacements. The second-hop RF link is modeled by an extended-generalized-K (EGK) distribution which is a versatile distribution and can characterize various fading conditions in mm-wave wireless channels where the transmission frequency is in excess of 60 GHz, and considers non-homogeneous propagation, interference effects due to multiuser transmission, multipath fading and shadowing effects observed in mm-wave RF wireless channels. The considered system employs fixed-gain amplify-and-forward (AF) relay-assisted transmission. The statistical characteristic for the end-to-end SNR, i.e., cumulative distribution function (cdf), is obtained for the considered system model in this work. Based on the obtained result for cdf, the outage and error performance is evaluated, and closed form expressions for the same are derived. The derived analytical results have been illustrated through numerical plots.

Performance analysis of different intensity modulation techniques over atmospheric turbulent free-space optical channels.

In this paper, we introduce a comprehensive study of the performance of intensity modulation (IM) techniques over gamma-gamma (GG) distributed free-space optical (FSO) channels. We derive closed-form expressions for the average bit error rate (BER) of thermal-noise-limited FSO systems adopting various IM techniques. The effect of atmospheric turbulence is studied. Comparisons are presented in terms of the transmitted peak power to achieve a certain BER. Results show that on-off keying, pulse amplitude modulation, and expurgated pulse-position modulation (EPPM) provide superior performance compared to other IM techniques. In addition, a proposal to reduce the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is introduced by adding another modulation layer of EPPM. A closed-form expression for the average BER of the proposed hybrid OFDM-EPPM technique over GG turbulent FSO channel is derived. Moreover, an expression for the outage probability of the FSO system adopting the proposed OFDM-EPPM technique is presented. Results are investigated and compared to those of traditional OFDM and hybrid OFDM with PPM (OFDM-PPM). It is shown that the hybrid OFDM-EPPM technique outperforms the hybrid OFDM-PPM technique for the same data rate. Moreover, the hybrid OFDM-EPPM technique allows higher data rates with lower PAPR values compared to those of the hybrid OFDM-PPM technique for the same number of time slots.

Secrecy Analysis of FSO Systems Considering Misalignments and Eavesdropper’s Location

The use of free-space optical (FSO) systems as secure transmission media has recently attracted research efforts worldwide. However, their secrecy performance may be compromised by the presence of an adversarial eavesdropper. In addition, misalignments between transceivers could severely affect the legitimate FSO channel and increase eavesdropping risks. This paper, for the first time, offers a complete framework to analyze the impact of an eavesdropper’s location on the secrecy performance of terrestrial FSO systems under generalized misalignments and atmospheric turbulence conditions. Particularly, the probability density functions (PDFs) of the eavesdropping channel are newly developed and presented in closed-form expressions. Capitalizing on the derived PDFs, secrecy performance metrics in the physical-layer security (PLS) and intensity modulation/direct detection (IM/DD) continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) systems can be analytically analyzed, incorporating all combined effects of the atmospheric turbulence, transceiver misalignments, receiver noises, and the eavesdropper’s location. Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations are also implemented to corroborate the analytical results.

Unified Performance Analysis of Hybrid FSO/RF System With Diversity Combining

Hybrid free space optical (FSO)/radio frequency (RF) systems have been proved to be reliable for high-data-rate wireless backhauls. In this article, we present a unified performance analysis of the hybrid FSO/RF transmission system which transmits identical data in both links and implements two popular diversity combining schemes, namely, selection combining (SC) and maximal ratio combining (MRC), in the receiver. Specially, for the FSO link, the Gamma-Gamma turbulence with pointing errors under heterodyne detection (HD) and intensity modulation/direction detection (IM/DD) is considered in our analysis while the general κ-μ shadowed fading which unifies popular RF fading models is employed for the analysis of the RF link. As a result, unified closed-form expressions of outage probabilities and average bit error rates for different modulation schemes are derived. A preliminary extension of the RF link to multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) transmission is also analyzed. Analytical and Monte Carlo simulation results are provided to characterize the performance of the hybrid FSO/RF link which is compared to the single FSO link and the single RF link. The agreement between the analytical and simulation results confirms the unification of various FSO channels and RF fading scenarios into a single closed-form expression.

Diversity analysis of simultaneous mmWave and free-space-optical transmission over F-distribution channel models

This paper provides a performance analysis of a simultaneous free-space-optics (FSO) and millimeter wave (mmWave) communication system with selection-combining and maximal-ratio-combining receivers over the F -distribution channel. The F -distribution model can be used to represent both the mmWave and FSO channels with proper selection of parameters. In particular, an exact-form analysis of the average bit error rate of a hybrid mmWave/FSO system is developed and substantiated through Monte Carlo simulation results, while considering varying system and channel parameters. In addition, asymptotic analysis is formulated at high, but pragmatic, signal-to-noise ratio values to elaborate further on the achieved diversity along with the impact of varying system and channel parameters. Reported results reveal that the considered hybrid system attains considerable enhancements and is promising in combating the existing challenges.