Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific research

Al-Iraqia University
Engineering College
Networks Engineering Department

ENHANCEMENT OF FREE SPACE OPTIC

COMMUNICATIONS UNDER COMPLEX
ENVIRONMENT

A Project Submitted to The Department of Network Engineering in

Partial Fulfilment for the Requirements of the Degree of B.sc in
Engineering

STUDENTS NAME
HUSSAIN ALI ABDULLAH
MAHMOOD RADHI HADI
FARIS KAREEM HILIWIT

SUPERVISOR
DR. SATEA HIKMAT ALNAJJAR

2018-2019
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this project report is based on my original work except
for citations and quotations which have been duly acknowledged.

Signature: _________________________

Name : _________________________

Date : _________________________

Signature: _________________________

Name : _________________________

Date : _________________________

Signature: _________________________

Name : _________________________

Date : _________________________

I
 APPROVAL FOR SUBMISSION

I certify that this project report entitles “ENHANCEMENT OF FREE

SPACE OPTIC COMMUNICATIONS UNDER COMPLEX
ENVIRONMENT” was prepared by HUSSAIN ALI ABDULLAH,
MAHMOOD RADHI HADI and FARIS KAREEM HILIWIT has met
the required standard for submission in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the award of Bachelor of Network Engineering at
University of Al-Iraqi University.

Approved by:

Signature : _________________________

Supervisor : _________________________

Date : _________________________

II
 DEDICATION

To our holy prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) …

III
 ACKNOWLDGEMENT

We would like to take this opportunity to best my acknowledgements to all

the persons who have directly or indirectly been involved with me in
seminar feasible and to run it up into a successful piece of work.
A report as all-encompassing as this is never the work of one or two people
labouring in quiet solitude. It is the product of many hands, and countless
hours from many people. My thanks go all of those who helped, whether
through their comments feedback, edits or suggestions, we express a deep
sense of gratitude to DR. SATEA HIKMAT ALNAJJAR who has helped
us a lot.
Who can we forget our collage? Without whom we can’t do anything. We
would like to think my management for their invaluable support their
patience, understanding and love gave us strength and will power to work
through the long tedious hours in studying the subject and preparing the
report.
Last but not the least, we would also like to thank our friends and
classmates who co-operated during the preparation of our seminar repot
and without them this report has not been possible. Their ideas helped us a
lot to improve our project report.

IV
 ABSTRACT

The most common wireless technologies use radio frequency (RF) that
offers a wide range of coverage with compatible devices. The congestion
and the limitations on bandwidths of the spectrum have inhibited
unrestricted growth of radio wireless system. Free Space Optic (FSO) is a
Line-of-site (LOS) technology that used laser to provide optical bandwidth
connection. This research aims to utilizing FSO to transfer and modulated
RF with optical signals. The technique used are suitable solution to
increase bandwidth that up to 2.5G. this approach can provide high-speed,
improved capacity, cost effective and easy to deploy wireless networks.
Potential disturbance arising from the weather condition is one of the most
effective factors that influence the bi-directional free space optics (FSO)
performance, such as fog, dust storm, snow, rain, and haze since they are
the most dominant outage sources in the FSO system. The technique used
are a suitable solution to increase bandwidth that up to 2.5Gbps. FSO units
consist of an optical transceiver with a laser (transmitter) and a photo
detector (receiver) to provide full duplex (bi-directional) capability. This
approach can provide high-speed, improved capacity, cost-effective optical
wireless connectivity, low power consumption and ease of installation

V
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ....................................................................................... I
APPROVAL FOR SUBMISSION ........................................................... II
DEDICATION ........................................................................................ III
ACKNOWLDGEMENT ........................................................................ IV
ABSTRACT............................................................................................. V
TABLE OF CONTENTS........................................................................ VI
Chapter One .............................................................................................. 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.2 BACKGROUND REVIEW 2
1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT 3
1.4 OBJECTIVES 3
Chapter Two.............................................................................................. 4
2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW 4
Chapter Three............................................................................................ 7
3.1 INTRODUCTION 7
3.1.1 FSO channel characterization 9
3.1.2 Link availability and reliability models 10
3.1.3 Automation of FSO link 11
3.1.4 FSO link cost 11
3.2 ATMOSPHERIC EFFECTS ON FSO LINK 12
3.2.1 Atmospheric Scintillation 12
3.2.2 Physical Obstacles 12
3.2.3 Sunshine 12
3.2.4 Fog 13
3.2.5 Shimmer 13
3.3 FSO SYSTEM ANALYSI 14
3.4 SYSTEM PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT 16
3.5 METHODOLOGY 18
3.5.1 Requirements 19
VI
 3.5.2 Design 20
3.6 RESULT 21
Chapter Four ........................................................................................... 22
4.1 CONCLUSION 22

VII
 Chapter One

1.1 INTRODUCTION
At present, the three primary transport media used for communication
purposes are copper line used for about 90% of communication,
microwave radio link used for about 6% communication purposes and
optical fiber for almost 4% of the communication [1]. Copper lines are
becoming incapable option for future communication demands due to low
data rate and linear increase in price in accordance with the capacity.
Alternatively, optical fiber can support large data rates but need high initial
investments and the maintenance cost.
The conventional radio frequency (RF) technology has been widely used
and studied for the communication purposes. RF links provide wireless
connectivity between two nodes hence supports mobility. These links
however have limited data rates and are also vulnerable to interference and
security problems. As the frequency for the signal increases, it is
increasingly curbed by distance and weather conditions.
Moreover, the spectrum license part adds to the cost. Free Space Optical
(FSO) Communication, also known as Optical Wireless Communication
(OWC), is a promising technology aimed to fulfil the next generation
demands such as high data rates, low interference, ease of implementation
and maintenance, etc. FSO offers higher data rates, ultra-low channel
interference, simplified implementation and lower power consumption.
An FSO link utilizes the free space between pair of laser-photo detector
transceivers to transfer data. The FSO operates at beam wavelength
ranging from 350 nm to 1550 nm hence making system immune to
interference, license free and can support higher capacity. Hence FSO

1
system can be implemented to establish optical link of several gigabits per
second over a distance of few kilometres [2].

Figure 1 Data Rate vs. Link Range Chart

1.2 BACKGROUND REVIEW

According to the history, essentially all of the engineering of today’s FSO
or free space optical communication systems was done over the past 40
years or so mostly for defence applications. It is said that the first “FSO”
system has been used in the 8th century by the Greek people. They used
fire as the light source, the atmosphere as the transmission medium and
human eye as receiver. Later in the late 19th century, the first real FSO has
been invented by Alexander Graham Bell before he ever invented the
telephone as the communication systems.
Bells FSO experiment converted voice sounds to telephone signals and
transmitted them between receivers through free air space along a beam of
light for a distance of some 600 feet, this was later called photo-phone.

2
Although Bells photo-phone never became a commercial reality, it
demonstrated the basic principle of optical communications.
Then three decades ago, the military and NASA build the system and has
providing us with fast communication links in remote locations through
various forms.

1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT

There are several methods of data transmission including
telecommunications, wireless and optical cables, but they do not meet the
needs of the user where the telecommunications does not have the capacity
to carry the advanced data, either wireless communications, the rate of data
transfer is slow as a kind of communication was reached to provide the
need for users of optical cables, but high cost The laser communication
technology was invented, which is the basis of connection work for optical
cables.

1.4 OBJECTIVES
1- To improve the performance of the network we used the technique
(FSO) where this connection increases the bandwidth of the data
thus increasing the data transfer rate to more than 2.5Gbps.
2- To decrease effort, time, and cost due to the impediments to
communication by optical cables.

3
 Chapter Two

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

Although, FSO communication has been studied in various literatures
before, however most of these surveys are cantered on terrestrial FSO links
and very less surveys are available for space-based optical links.0
A survey paper by [3] has elaborated various issues in FSO link according
to communication theory prospective. They have presented different types
of losses encountered in terrestrial FSO communication, details on FSO
transceiver, channel coding, modulation and ways to mitigate fading
effects of atmospheric turbulence.
Similarly, [4] have quantitatively covered various aspects that affect the
performance of terrestrial FSO link - atmospheric attenuation, scintillation,
alignment or building motion, solar interference and line-of-sight
obstructions.
Another survey by [6] solely focused on FSO communication for next
generation cellular network.

An introductory paper on terrestrial FSO communication by [7] provide an

overview of various challenges faced in the design of FSO communication.
[8] the authors laid emphasis on deep space optical communication
requirements and its future prospective.
[9] derived an exact bit error rate of M-ary Phase Shift Keying. Phase of
the signal should be recovered at the receiver. Phase noise is the
fluctuations in the phase of the waveform. For phase noise, active modal
compensation technique is utilized. Phase wavefront distortion has great
impact on system performance. Two different regimes of turbulence
depends on the receiver aperture diameter is considered. The amplitude

4
fluctuations are characterized by lognormal distribution and phase
fluctuations is characterized by Gaussian distribution. This paper
particularly deals with QPSK using synchronous homodyne/heterodyne
detection. This paper describes the number of modes needed for
compensation at the receiver. The drawback is, that the impact of phase
noise will be small if the normalized aperture diameter is small. In this
case, fluctuations in the intensity dominates and greatly affect system
performance. If the normalized receiver aperture diameter is large, then the
phase noise will be dominated. Hence, higher order modes for
compensation is needed.
[10] studied the exact error rate of coherent free space optical
communication under weak turbulence conditions. Letzepis and A. Guillen
i Fabregas, “Outage analysis in MIMO free-space optical channels with
pulse-position Equal gain combiner is employed in the optical
communication systems. An exact error rate of BPSK is found. An outage
probability for the system is also found. Here, both EGC and selection
diversity are analysed for long range of optical communication. The
received optical signal is characterized by K- distributions. But for
selection diversity scheme, asynchronous Differential Phase Shift Keying
(DPSK) and Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) modulations schemes are used.
For selection diversity there is no need for co-phasing of the received
optical signal. Hence it reduces the receiver complexity. The performance
of EGC is compared with the Maximal ratio combiner (MRC). At SNR of
1dB less is required to achieve the performance of MRC. Here, to reduce
the system complexity, the selection diversity is used. The drawback of this
paper is that selection diversity scheme is used only for asynchronous
detection of the optical signal. Since phase of the signal is an important
attribute to be considered, the phase of the signal should be recovered at

5
the receiver. Because phase of the laser beam is affected when it is
transmitted through atmosphere. The turbulence-induced fading and effect
of scintillation affects the phase of the laser beam signals. Hence co-
phasing of the signal is important. The phase of the signal is very much
affected due to atmospheric turbulence-induced fading and scintillation
effect. Hence it is very much important to recover the phase of the signal
at the receiver.
K.Kiasaleh, “Performance of coherent DPSK free space optical
communication systems in K-distributed turbulence,”2006, introduced an
exact bit error rate of encoded differentially phase shift keying with
coherent detection. Here, optical beam is subjected to K-distributed
turbulence. Since the propagation distance is long, the random fluctuations
of the intensity are characterized by K-distributed coherent detection. Here,
optical beam is subjected to K-distributed turbulence. Since the
propagation distance is long, the random fluctuations of the intensity are
characterized by K-distributed turbulence. The drawback of this paper is
that the impact of phase noise is not.

Chapter Three

3.1 INTRODUCTION
The optical wireless communication (OWC) systems have attracted a lot
of interest of the users because they can solve the last mile problem in
urban environments. OWC, also recognized as free space optical (FSO)
communication, has emerged as a commercially feasible alternative to
radio frequency (RF) and millimetre wave’s wireless communication for
reliable and rapid deployment of data and voice networks. FSO

6
communication using high bandwidth transmission links has enormous
potential to serve for requirements of high data rate transmissions. License
free bandwidth, high carrier frequency (range 20 THz- 375Thz), easy
deployment, appreciable security of data, avoiding electromagnetic
pollution, low power consumption enables FSO links to provide high data
rates communications [1].
Its various advantages over existing Radio Frequency (RF) technologies
like wider bandwidth that can support a large number of users without any
delay or interference in communication, have increased its demand in the
market. Despite of being on the list of most desirable technologies of the
next generation, its deployment is highly dependent on atmospheric
variations thus related to its reliability and availability issues. Fog, snow
and clouds scatter or absorb the optical signal, which causes transmission
errors. Maintaining a clear line of sight (LOS) between transmitter and
receiver is also one of the major challenges in establishing optical wireless
links in the free space [6].
The LOS is disturbed due to atmospheric influences like fog, rain, snow,
dust, sleet, clouds or temporary physical obstructions like birds and
airplanes. Various researchers have come up with the results that optical
attenuation can reach up to128dB/km in heavy fog and snow conditions in
different areas [7]. The scattering, absorption and refraction of light signals
reduce the link capacity and availability in different weather conditions. To
lessen these effects, techniques like using multiple transmit lasers and
multiple receive apertures can be applied [8-9].
The performance of FSO links in the presence of atmospheric turbulence
had been analysed using spatial diversity [10-11]. To calculate the error
rate performance, outage probability and diversity gain for multi-input
multioutput FSO links, the combined effect of atmospheric turbulence and

7
misalignment was also considered [12-13]. Then the effect of weather
conditions was taken into account using array of receivers [9].
But the effect of weather conditions of hilly areas like heavy fog, wet snow,
dry snow etc was not discussed by researchers in previous literature. The
consideration of these parameters cannot be ignored while installation of
FSO link especially in hilly areas. In this paper a comprehensive analysis
of FSO link in all weather conditions has been performed using one of the
most important approaches of array of photo detectors to reduce the effects
of attenuation on received signal. At an ideal case, the only cause of signal
attenuation is distance of transmission. So, the additional losses we have
taken into account are due to weather conditions only and other losses are
considered to be 0 dB/km. The study of bit error rate, height of eye
diagram, Q factor and maximum received power is taken into account for
studying the performance of FSO link.

3.1.1 FSO channel characterization

FSO uses an unguided beam that propagates through free space as the
transmission medium. Such a light, free space channel should be analysed
and characterized. The typical FSO channel conditions fluctuate and
deteriorate due to atmospheric turbulence. Indeed, atmospheric turbulence
has been one of the main clogging factors of practical deployment.
Atmospheric impairment and disturbance degrade FSO channel
performance and makes it hard to achieve constant availability and
reliability. It is shown in [10] that if a deep fade lasts for ∼1 − 100μs on
the multiple Gbps optical channel, up to 109 consecutive bits might be lost.
The refractive index structure parameter, typically denoted as Cn 2,
represents the strength of the atmospheric turbulence, which has a strong
impact on channel fading [13].

8
There are many atmospheric turbulence factors such as weather
phenomena and scintillation by pressure, humidity, and temperature that
affect FSO link quality. When weather conditions are severe, the
performance of a free space link will be significantly hampered. However,
it is found that channel availability can be achieved with high probability
even under severe weather conditions. According to [15], atmospheric
attenuation is constantly low, over 99% as measured in three major U.K.
cities. When a sufficient power budget is applied, an FSO link availability
of up to 99.5% is achievable. Scintillation, the temporary spatial variation
of light intensity, degrades the performance of FSO links even in clear
weather. In particular, the variations in temperature dominate the refractive
index structure parameter. According to [14], the scintillation effects
induced by pressure and humidity are also relatively small, but the effects
of temperature are more significant.

3.1.2 Link availability and reliability models

The availability and reliability of wireless optical links are essential factors
for FSO networks. If the wireless optical links suffer from low availability
and reliability, the transmissions will be interrupted and the overall
performance of the FSO network will be degraded. There are several
sources that deteriorate FSO link quality. In OWTNs, atmospheric
turbulence is the main cause of link performance degradation. The narrow
beam property of an FSO link is another cause of weak link connectivity.
A typical optical beam propagates with a narrow divergence of a few mrad,
and the Field of View (FOV) at the receiver is also small [9]. Due to these
small angles, link loss or inaccurate alignment happens. Thus, Precise
pointing, Acquisition, and Tracking (PAT) techniques are indispensable.

9
In the case of mobile platforms such as satellites and airplanes, PAT
techniques become more challenging. In addition, optical beams cannot
penetrate non-transparent bodies, so if there is any stationary obstacle on
the LOS path between two FSO transceivers, it would be impossible to
form a link. Even though a wireless optical link exists, it suffers from
temporary outages caused by moving objects like birds or snow. To
achieve high availability and reliability, a straightforward approach is to
place FSO devices where there is less probability of disturbance by objects
and where the weather conditions are better on average. However, there are
still opportunities to achieve higher availability and reliability of FSO links
by considering and addressing one or more of the sources that affect them.
Viable approaches to keep strengthening the availability and reliability of
FSO channels have been proposed in the literature. These include
autonomous PAT mechanisms [10], diversity techniques [11], hybrid
RF/FSO systems [12], among others.

3.1.3 Automation of FSO link

There are trade-offs when operating FSO links between manually or by
automation in order to establish/maintain link connections. The degree of
automatic operation depends on the specific application. If the FSO link is
deployed in an area with high reliability and does not need to be changed
in direction for a long period of time, it is possible to use manual operation
with simple tracking mechanisms to save on costs. However, OWSNs, for
example, require a high level of automation for the purpose of topology
control, since it is impossible to manipulate the direction once satellites
have been launched. If FSO transceivers operate autonomously, self-
configuration and self-healing algorithms should be developed and
incorporated into the system [8].

10
3.1.4 FSO link cost
An FSO link is a point-to-point connection. Thus, each link needs two
transceivers at both ends. It means that the number of required devices is
proportional to the number of required connections in the FSO network, so
the cost of the FSO device is an important design factor in terms of network
deployment and operation. In OWHNs, a typical IrDA component costs
just about $2 USD, which is relatively inexpensive. However, the purchase
and installation cost of OWTNs is estimated to range from $10,000 USD
to $25,000 USD for medium and long-distance links as in 2003 [14].
Hence, it is necessary to further develop transmitters and receivers in
consideration of production and deployment cost. Chan in [15] discussed
high system costs and proposed to develop photon-counting receivers and
a coherent system for vacuum and air turbulence channels in order to
reduce system costs.

3.2 ATMOSPHERIC EFFECTS ON FSO LINK

The performance of FSO link is significantly influenced by following
channel impairments:

3.2.1 Atmospheric Scintillation

Scintillation is known as the optical turbulence resulting from small
temperature variations Scintillation is caused by solar energy heating up
small air pockets in homogenously, thereby creating varying refractive
index along the FSO link. This results in the scattering of laser beams at
various angles along the propagation path and a resultant fluctuation in
both the intensity and phase of the received light. Atmospheric scintillation

11
is less significant at distances less than 500 m but degrades performance of
an FSO link at ranges of the order of 1km or longer [5] [9].

3.2.2 Physical Obstacles

Physical obstructions such as birds, insects, tree limbs, buildings or other
factors can temporarily or permanently block the laser line-of-sight.
Platform/building motion due to wind, differential heating and cooling, or
ground motion over time can result in serious misalignment of fixed
position laser communication systems. Proper planning and site
measurements are ways of avoiding this effect [6].

3.2.3 Sunshine
A bright sunny day will increase the background light level detected by the
receiver i.e. the RSSI will be higher in the day than at night. During normal
operation this effect is masked by other variations like temperature changes
etc.
However, the effect of background light levels can be demonstrated (in an
exaggerated way) by comparing the RSSI value when a Cable free unit is
pointed at the sky or at the ground (NOTE: do not point Cable free laser
products directly at the sun as this can damage the unit and direct facing of
sunshine is not only cause of damaging the receiver but also can cause link
unavailability because background noise dominates and RSSI falls down)
[8].

3.2.4 Fog
Fog, low cloud, rain, snow, sand etc. attenuates the beam as it passes
through the atmosphere. If the atmospheric effect is severe enough causing
a greater attenuation than the available fade margin of the link, errors will

12
be caused and ultimately even complete loss of communication. As general
rule if the other side is visible to the human eye, then the link will operate
correctly and pass data error free, in actual practice Cable free links
perform far better than this. As a “rough rule of thumb” the naked eye can
see through approximately 14dB of attenuation.].

3.2.5 Shimmer
Shimmer (heat haze) is atmospheric movement caused by heating of a
surface such as tarmac or a flat rooftop. The hot surface causes a rapid
increase in temperature of the air immediately adjacent to the surface; this
in turn rises and is replaced with cool air. The boundaries between the hot
and cold air causes the laser beam to be bent just slightly. On a large-scale
shimmer can cause two effects [7]:
1. The beam is bent enough to divert the majority of the power contained
in the footprint away from the receiver at the remote end or
2. Constructive and destructive interference of the beam, which shows up
as random “speckles” in the footprint, can cause errors in the data stream.

3.3 FSO SYSTEM ANALYSI

A synoptic diagram of the considered system model is depicted in Figure
1 below. The block diagram shows the three key function elements of FSO
system that are the transmitter, the atmospheric channel and the receiver.
The transmitter which is used for converting electrical signal into optical
signal consists of a modulator, a laser driver, a laser and a power meter.
The modulator used in the link converts the information into the desired
signal and controls the amplitude of an optical signal. Laser driver provides
the power to the laser for its proper functioning and helps to prevent aging
and other environmental effects of laser. The range of the link for

13
evaluating the performance is chosen as 500m and the transmission
wavelength chosen for the working of laser is 1550 nm which is the 3rd
optical window of wireless transmission. It is chosen to work on this
wavelength as the functioning of FSO link is more robust and safer for
human eye at this value [2-3].

Figure 2 Block diagram of FSO link

The information signal is transmitted over FSO channel where it undergoes

attenuation and power loss as a result of absorption, scattering and
turbulence. At the receiver end, the signal is amplified and detected by an
array of receivers which improve the overall efficiency and accuracy of the
system. The filter and regenerator are used to preserve the wave shape of
the signal. Power meter and BER analyser are used to measure the
parameters of received signal. The data rates up to 100 Gb/s can be
achieved using FSO technology [4-5].
Attenuation present in the atmosphere of the system can affect its
performance. Atmospheric attenuation and geometric losses constitute all
attenuation. It is the effect of particles present in the air for e.g. haze, rain,
fog, snow etc. These particles can stay a longer time in the atmosphere. So,
attenuation values depend upon the visibility level at that time. To reduce

14
these effects, a system is proposed that can work properly under these
conditions. The value of parameters on which the system is operating is
mentioned in table 1.

Table 1Proposed Operating Parameters for Free Space Optical

Communication Systems

3.4 SYSTEM PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT

To improve the performance and increase the availability, FSO as well as
next generation FSO systems can employ other atmospheric turbulence
mitigation techniques such as forward error coding (FEC), high power and
bandwidth efficiency modulations, transmitting signal at different times
(time diversity) or using multiple transmitters and/or receivers (space
diversity). In this part we give some examples of system performance
enhancement using receiver diversity and time diversity. In the former
method, the optical signal is transmitted by one transmitter antenna but at
receiving site, multiple receivers are used to collect the data. The output
signal is the combination of different received signals using one of the

15
processing methods like equal gain combining (EGC), maximum ratio
combining (MRC) or select best combining (SBC).
In FSO systems, thanks to the use of direct coupling at the receiver, the
received signals can be combined optically, the combined signal then is
transferred through a pre-amplifier before detected by a photo detector.
Multiple receivers in this case are sets of receiving aperture and coupling
scheme to couple received signal into fiber core. As depicted in the
previous session, the power fluctuations in the fiber core of each signal can
be modelled by the modified Gamma PDF with power scintillation index
is derived from the strength of scintillation and coupling fading factor. we
take the parameters of the FSO system into calculation with the gain value
of pre-amplifier is 20dB, We consider the impact of scintillation and
coupling fading at the receiver by using the modified Gamma PDF
function. We assume that the optical power from different apertures and
couplers can be combined equally using for example optical coupler. The
distribution of the combined optical power after optical coupler is not a
single model any more but a series of Gamma function [6].

16
 Table 2 FSO link attenuation in dB/km according to the Kim model.

We also take different noise sources including thermal noise, shot noise
and especially pre-amplifier produced noises into consideration. It is clear
that the system performance is improved significantly when multiple
receivers are employed. The performance also depends on the distance
between receivers, when the distance is large there is no correlation
between the receivers fading so the performance is better. If the distance is
small, the fading between receivers' correlates resulting in performance
reduction.
In time diversity solution, a signal is transmitted many times using one pair
of transmitter and receiver and at the receiving site different signals
transmitted at different times are synchronized and combined. There are
many methods to implement time diversity in FSO communications
regarding the way to differentiate different signals. The optical signal at
the transmitting site is divided into many branches; each branch is coded
by an OCDMA code and delayed by a time period. The signals then are
combined before transmitting over FSO channel, and at the receiving site

17
are inversely synchronized, decoded and combined again. The method
demonstrates a good improvement for the system especially when
atmospheric turbulence increases.

3.5 METHODOLOGY
Investigating Outdoor FSO Communication Is Difficult Due To The Long
Time It Takes Therefore Controlled Environment Has Been Used To
Emulate The Outdoor Impairments Using A Controlled Environment The
Atmospheric Conditions Can Be Reproduced To Perform Different
Measurements Under The Same Conditions
The FSO design model is shown in Figure 3, FSO has subsystem
Transmitter, Propagation channel and receiver. Transmitter has four
channel and receiver that using photo diode.
In the transmitter side, using than more channel is used the acclimator that
exploits an aspheric lens pre-aligned at 650 nm wavelength either 4 mw
output power is used to transmit the signal over free space.
to compensate for dust sticks on the transparent windows, we injected some
dust to the camper and blown it several times this allows dust to the walls
and windows reaching a kind of saturation sticking level. we started the
measurements by injecting the dust into the chamber and measure the
received signal automatically the acquisition for each measurements the
experiment was carried out in dark room to eliminate the ambient light
noise

18
Figure 3 Block diagram of an optical wireless link showing the front end
of an optical transmitter and receiver

3.5.1 Requirements
3.5.1.1 Software Requirement
 Using Arduino oscilloscope software.

3.5.1.2 Hardware Requirement

Main Component:

 5mW Laser Copper Head 650nm (X4).

 Polycrystalline 4.2W 18V Solar Cell 5x10cm.

 Fan.

 Glass box with a fixed amount of dust inside it.

 Audio amplifier

 9V battery and wires.

 Jack audio (Male & Female) with AUX cables.

 Oscilloscope.

3.5.2 Design
 We make the design as shown in figure 4 and send the laser in dusty

medium (in the glass box with dust and fan inside it).

19
  Multiple transmitter/receiver (TX/RX) system could improve the

quality of an FSO link [1].

 At first time we send laser in one channel then we use multiple

channels (up to 4 channels) to reduce the dust effect on laser signals

in the box.

Figure 4 the prototype of the FSO design model

3.6 RESULT
We measured the output voltages in the case of clear weather and using

multiple channels as shown in figure 5, then we measured the output

voltages in the case of dust storms as shown in figure 6, and concluded that

20
the use of four channels is the best solution to avoid attenuation of laser

signals.

Figure 5 the measurement of the output signal in the case of clear weather

Figure 6 the measurement of the output signal in the case of dust storm

Chapter Four

21
4.1 CONCLUSION
In this project, we presented a comprehensive survey of FSO

communications and optical wireless networks, to provide the architecture,

big picture, and state-of-the-art of this important wireless technology. It

also discussed important design factors in FSO networks and reviewed

existing solutions proposed in the literature. Although FSO

communications have been studied for years, FSO networking is still in its

infant stage.

The performance of the free space optical communication systems under

the effects of bad weather conditions especially for heavy rain, fog, dry and

wet snow has been analysed. The performance of link is investigated for

these conditions and is further improved by the technique of using an array

of receivers. The results reveal that the use of a set of channels containing

each channel on the laser to send the data that it has increased the number

of channels transmitter increases the transmitter power to overcome the

effect associated with the transmission medium so there is a noticeable

difference in the receipt of data when one or more channels are used for

transmission where the improvement The badge received as a result of an

increase in the number of transmission channels. With further research and

development, communication in FSO system can also be enhanced at

higher data rate over a longer link range under all weather conditions and

22
atmospheric turbulences to enhance the usage of free space optics

technology.

The information derived in this project will be helpful in the system

modelling, theoretical evaluation and further optimization. The system

performance improvement using receiver diversity and time diversity is

also presented. It is shown that a significant enhancement in system

performance can be obtained by using one of these solutions, especially

when the atmospheric turbulence is strong.

References

23
[1] NASA, Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC), 2016, [online].

[2] E. Ciaramella, Y. Arimoto, G. Contestabile, M. Presi, A. D'Errico, V.

Guarino

[3] (M. A. Khalighi and M. Uysal, “Survey on free space optical

communication: A communication theory perspective”,2014)

[4] (S. Bloom, E. Korevaar, J. Schuster, and H. Willebrand,

“Understanding the performance of free-space optics”,2003)

[5] (F. Demers, H. Yanikomeroglu, and M. St-Hilaire, “A survey of

opportunities for free space optics in next generation cellular

networks”,2011)

[6] Y. Xiao, J. Rosdahl, Throughput and delay limits of IEEE 802.11, IEEE

Commun

[7] (H. Henniger and O. Wilfert, “An introduction to free-space optical

communications”,2012)

[8] In (H. Hemmati, A. Biswas, and I. B. Djordjevic, “Deep-space optical

communications: Future perspectives and applications”, 2014),

[9] (A. Belmonte and J. M. Kahn, “Performance of synchronous optical

receivers using atmospheric compensation techniques,". 2008),

[10] N. Letzepis and A. Guillen i Fabregas, “Outage analysis in MIMO

free-space optical channels with pulse-position modulation," 2008,

24
[11] A. Raja, Q. Kagalwala, T. Landolsi, and M. El-Tarhuni, “Free-space

optics channel characterization under UAE weather conditions,” in 2007

IEEE International Conference on Signal Processing and

Communications, Dubai, pp. 856–859, 2007.

[13] Z. Ghassemlooy, J. Perez, and E. Leitgeb, “On the performance of

FSO communications links under sandstorm conditions,” in International

Conference on Telecommunications, 2013, pp. 53–58.

25