ABSTRACT
Despite the benefits of free-space optical (FSO) communications, their full utilization is limited by the influence of atmospheric weather conditions, such as fog, turbulence, smoke, snow, etc. In urban environments, additional environmental factors such as smog and dust particles due to air pollution caused by industry and motor vehicles may affect FSO link performance, which has not been investigated in detail yet. Both smog and dust particles cause absorption and scattering of the propagating optical signal, thus resulting in high attenuation. This work investigates the joint impact of atmospheric turbulence and dust particle-imposed scattering on FSO link performance as part of the last-mile access network in urban areas. Propagation of an optical wave is at first analyzed based on the microphysic approach, and the extinction caused by small particles is determined. An experimental measurement campaign using a dedicated test chamber is carried out to assess FSO link performance operating wavelengths of 670 nm and 830 nm and under dust and turbulent conditions. The measured attenuation and the Q factor in terms of the velocity of particle flow and turbulence strength are analyzed. We show that for an airflow of 2 m/s, the Q factor is almost 3.5 higher at the wavelength of 830 nm than at 670 nm. However, for a wavelength of 670 nm, the FSO link is less affected by the increase in airflow compared to 830 nm. The Q factor reduces with turbulence. Under similar turbulence conditions, for ash particles, the Q factor is higher than that of sand particles.
ABSTRACT
This Letter presents original measurement results from an all-optical 10 Gbit/s free-space optics (FSO) relay link involving two FSO links and an all-optical switch. Considering the fact that reported analyses of relay links are dominated by analytical findings, the experimental results represent a vital resource for evaluating the performance of relay FSO links in the presence of atmospheric turbulence. Bit-error-rate (BER) performance of the relay system is tested for single and dual-hop links under several turbulence regimes. Furthermore, results from this measurement are used to ascertain real parameters of the outdoor links and to improve the accuracy of simulation results. Results show that using a dual-hop FSO link against a single FSO link could result in up to four orders of magnitude improvement in BER in the presence of atmospheric turbulence.
ABSTRACT
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.
