Statistical evaluation of the performance of free-space-optical link affected by optical turbulence with gamma-gamma distribution through time series generated by simulation

Abstract

In this article, the statistical evaluation of the performance of FSO links subject to dynamic fluctuations of atmospheric optical turbulence that affect the instantaneous value of the received optical power is presented. We reproduce this temporal domain effect with time series generated by simulation considering the optical turbulence as a stochastic process with Gamma-Gamma probability distribution. Also, a phase screen was used in order to observe the impact that optical turbulence has over the optical information field’s spatial phase. With our simulations, it is possible to get the two most essential performance parameters required for the practical implementation of FSO links. We obtained the mean signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the mean bit error rate (BER) of FSO links affected by optical turbulence with Gamma-Gamma distribution, where the results show that the mean SNR and mean BER are adequately modified according to the atmospheric turbulence levels, e.g., ≈ 1.4 dB for σ 2 R = 0.33 and ≈ 0.36 dB for σ 2 R = 1. Thus, the methodology presented in this paper may be readily used to design and implement real-world FSO links.