cases [10]. In Refs.
11 and [12], the performance of the
FREE SPACE OPTICAL
COMMUNICATION USING
SUBCARRIER INTENSITY
MODULATION THROUGH
GENERALIZED TURBULENCE
CHANNEL WITH POINTING ERROR
Jagadeesh VK,1 Vineeth Palliyembil,1
P. Muthuchidambaranathan,1 and Francis M. Bui2
1
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli 620 015, India;
Corresponding author: vkjagadeesh@gmail.com
2
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of
Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
Received 29 January 2015
ABSTRACT: Free Space Optical (FSO) Communication Systems
are wireless systems capable of providing high speed, secure and
cost effective communication between two entities. The channel for
FSO is expressed in terms of the Malaga-distribution model. It is
a generalized channel model encompassing all the channel
conditions and previous models. In this work, the performance of a
Subcarrier Intensity Modulation FSO system is analyzed by
considering the ill effects channel turbulence and pointing error
and derived a closed form analytical expression for bit error rate
and channel capacity. The results demonstrate the performance
deterioration the system suffers because of the channel and
also how the m-distribution model can be used to obtain the
performance over other FSO channels. V C 2015 Wiley
Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1958–1961,
2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI
10.1002/mop.29236
Key words: free space optics; subcarrier intensity modulation; Malaga-
distribution model; bit error rate; ergodic channel capacity
1. INTRODUCTION
Free Space Optical (FSO) communication is a line of sight, opti-
cal, and wireless mode of communication which is an uprising
technology in modern day communication scenario. FSO has the
advantage of cost effectiveness and easy installation and mainte-
nance compared to its wired counterpart generally known as
optical fiber communication. Among wireless communications
FSO has the advantages such as use of the license free spec-
trum, information security because of line use of pointed beam
signaling and lack of health hazards due to nonionizing radiation
[1]. Even though the concept of FSO is generally utilized to
provide the last mile access to the high speed fiber optical back-
bone, it can be used for both indoor and outdoor applications. It
can setup outdoor Local Area Networks and point to point links.
It can set up indoor networks and also inter chip communication
in integrated circuits.
The major setback faced by the FSO communication systems
is the channel turbulence effects. It significantly degrades the
communication performance. Another challenge is that from the
misalignment happening in the line of sight between the trans-
mitter and receiver because of building sways from winds or
minor earthquakes [2]. These effects can be modeled by many
distribution models such as log normal [3], K [4], negative
exponential [5], Gamma–Gamma distribution [4,6–9], and so
forth.
Recently, a new generalized propagation model has been
adopted which can model other distributions as special
1958 MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 57, No. 8, August 2015
m-distribution with OOK modulation has been analyzed
without considering the pointing error. In Ref. 13, the
authors studied the impact of pointing errors on the
performance of generalized atmospheric optical channels.
The outage probability for OOK modulation for m-distrib-
uted relay aided communication system is investigated in
Ref. 14. The performance of FSO communication system
with binary phase shift keying (BPSK) subcarrier intensity
modulated (SIM) for different turbulence distributions have
already been investigated [15–19]. In Ref. 20, the bit error
rate (BER) analysis of BPSK-SIM generalized FSO system
is performed. The author did not consider the pointing
error.
In this article, the performance of a SIM-FSO system is
investigated over m-distributed turbulence channel in the pres-
ence of pointing error. The closed form expression for BER and
ergodic channel capacity of the system over the m-distribution
channel. The derived analytical expressions can be applied for
analyzing the performance of the SIM-FSO system over previ-
ously proposed statistical model like gamma–gamma, negative
exponential, and K distribution as we considered the generic
model here.
The remaining portion of the article is organized as fol-
lows. The channel model is presented in Section 2. The per-
formance analysis of BER and channel capacity is described
in Section 3. Numerical results and Discussions are pre-
sented in Section 4. Finally, conclusions are presented in
Section 5.
2. CHANNEL AND SYSTEM MODEL
2.1. Channel Model
The channel is modeled using the generalized FSO channel
known as the Malaga-distribution channel. It covers all the
channel conditions from weak to strong turbulence and the
effect of pointing errors happening due to misalignments in the
line of sight optical beam between the transmitter and the
receiver. The model considers the optical beam consisting of
three components: (1) the line of sight component with power
X, (2) the scattered component coupled to the line of sight
component with power 2qb0, and (3) the scattered component
independent of the previous components with power
2(1 2 q)b0. So the total power of the scattered components is
2b0. The parameter q represents the amount of coupling
between the scattered and line of sight component. The proba-
bility density function (pdf) of the m-distribution turbulence is
given by
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi!
X
b
a1k abh
fh ðhÞ5A ak h 2 21 Ka2k 2 0
k51 cb1X
 b1a=2
2aa cb
where A5
c11a=2 CðaÞ cb1X’
0 1  k
0 122 !k21  
b21 cb1X 0
X a k=2
ak 5@ A
ðk21Þ! c b
k21
We consider both effects of turbulence-induced fading and
pointing error over FSO links. The optical channel state h is
modeled as a product of two factors.
DOI 10.1002/mop
 h5ha hp 3. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

where ha denotes the atmospheric turbulence and hp represents
the attenuation due to pointing error. The received optical irradi-
ance h can be expressed in a probability distribution function
form as given below
3.1. Bit Error Rate
For a particular value of received irradiance h, the BER value for
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
BPSK-SIM system is given by the expression as Pec 5Qð cðhÞÞ.
Where c(h) is the instantaneous receiver signal to noise ratio
2

!! (SNR) given by the expression cðhÞ5 ðRhÞ Pt

2r2 . As the instantaneous
 a1k  n
g2 Ah21 X
b 2
1 2 3;0 h  11g SNR varies as per change in h value, the expression for the BER
fh ðhÞ5 ak G1;3 (1)
2 k51
B BA0  g2 ; a; k also changes. Therefore, we will take the average BER (ABER)
given by the expectation of the instantaneous BER over the pdf of
0
The optical power received is given by the expression X 5X h. So the expression for the ABER is given by
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
12qb0 12 2b0 Xqcos ð/A 2/B Þ and c52ð12qÞb0 is the power ð1 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
of the independent scattered component. Parameter a represents Pber fh ðhÞQð cðhÞÞdh (2)
an effective number of large scale scattering cells of the channel 0

and b represents the amount of fading of the signal. Also B5 Substituting the expressions for pdf in (2) and c(h) we get
 0 
X 1cb
ab and the fraction of power of the optical beam at the 0sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi1
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2 ffi ð
1
ðRhÞ2 Pt A g2 Ah21 X
b
center is represented by A0 5ðexp ðvÞÞ2 where v5a p=wz is the Pber 5 Q@ 2
2rn 2
ratio between beam width wz and radius of the detector “a.” 0
k51

The effective beam width is given by the expression w2zeq 5w2z  a1k  11g2 !!
pffiffi
1 2 3;0 h 
ak G1;3 dh (3)
perfcðvÞ wzeq
2vexp ð2v2 Þ where g5 2rs is the ratio between the effective beam
B BA0  g2 ; a; k
width and the jitter standard deviation rs.
Using the result for Q function QðxÞ50:5erfcðxÞ and express-
2.2. System Model pffiffiffi
ing erfc in the Meiger G form using result erfcð xÞ5 p1ffiffip G2;0
1;2
The system considered is BPSK-SIM communication system. A h i
1
SIM system is used to multiplex different users on to the same xj0;1=2 we will get
channel at the same time by modulating each user information
with different carrier signals following the BPSK method of 2 1 3
ð
1
2 
modulation and then adding them together after converting them g2 A 4 ð RhÞ P t 5
Pber 5 pffiffiffi h21 G2;0
1;2 
to an intermediate frequency. A DC bias is applied to the result- 4 p 2rn 2 
0 0;1=2
ing signal to make it contain only non-negative values because  a1k  2 !!
Xb
1 2
h   11g
the optical irradiance is always non-negative. This signal is then 3;0
ak G1;3  dh (4)
used to modulate the irradiance of the optical signal generator k51
B BA0  g2 ; a; k
and this final signal is transmitted over the channel. At the
receiver the optical signal is detected by a photo detector and Applying the result for integration from Eqs. (21) and (22),
then the resulting electrical signal is demodulated in each branch [21] on the above result we will get
according to the BPSK demodulation method.

0 0  11
 12g2 22g2 12a 22a 12k 22k
X
b  2a1k  ; ; ; ; ; ; 1
2
g A2 a22 B k 1 2 B 2 2  2 2 2 2 2 2 CC
Pber 5 pffiffiffi Bak 2 G2;6 B  CC
7;4 @8A0 B SNR (5)
8p p k51 @ B  1 2 12g 2 AA
 0; ; 2g ;
2 2

where Eð:Þ denotes the Expectation operator over the pdf of the
This is the final closed form result of the ABER of the intensity of the optical signal. Therefore, the average channel
BPSK-SIM system. capacity can be expressed as,

3.2. Ergodic Channel Capacity ð

1
Channel capacity is the maximum achievable rate of information Cerg5 log 2 ð11c0 h2Þfh ðhÞdh (7)
that can be achieved in a given communication system for a
0
particular value of SNR. According to Shannon theorem, the
normalized channel capacity is expressed as,  a1k  !!
ð
1
g2 Ah21 X
b 2
1 2 3;0 h  11g
Cerg5 ln ð11c0 h2Þ ak G1;3 dh
CðhÞ5log 2ð11SNRÞ (6) 2lnð2Þ k51 B BA0  g2 ; a; k
0

2
For BPSK the SNR can be written as SNR5c0 h . Because of (8)
the turbulence of the atmosphere, this value of channel capacity
fluctuates randomly, so we go for the average channel capacity or Using Meiger G functions for natural logarithmic func-
h i
ergodic channel capacity given by the expression Cerg 5EðCðhÞÞ, tion lnð11xÞ5G1;2 1;1
2;2 xj1;0 [Eq. (11), Ref. 21] we get

DOI 10.1002/mop MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 57, No. 8, August 2015 1959
 ð
1
h iX
b Applying the result for integration from Eqs. (21) and (22),
g2 A
Cerg5 h21 G1;2 1;1
2;2 c0 h2j1;0 [21] on the above result we will get
2lnð2Þ k51
0
 a1k  2 !!
1 2 3;0 h  11g
ak G1;3  dh (9)
B BA0  g2 ; a; k

0 0  11
 12g2 22g2 12a 22a 12k 22k
X
b   2a1k  1; 1; ; ; ; ; ;
a22
g2 A2 B k 1 2 B  2 2 2 2 2 2 C C
Cerg 5 Bak 2 G1;8 B 2 2  CC
8;4 @16B A0 SNR (10)
2plnð2Þ k51 @ B  12g 2 AA
 1; 2g2 ; ;0
2

This is the final closed form result of the average channel

capacity of the BPSK-SIM system.
To the best of the author’s knowledge these expressions are
new and can be applied for analysis the performance of a SIM-
FSO communication system under different turbulence condi-
tions in the presence of pointing error.

4. NUMERICAL RESULTS
The graphs for the analytical expressions derived for the ABER
and ergodic channel capacity are plotted against the average
received SNR. The values for the parameters are taken as the
following. The normalized optical power is given as
0
X 5X 1 2b0 51. Different values for q are taken to represent
varying turbulence conditions. Parameters representing the
pointing error are taken as: aperture radius a is taken as 10 cm,
the jitter radius rs is considered as 30 cm.
There are two plots for the ABER which is drawn for differ-
ent and same values for the optical irradiance scintillation index, Figure 2 ABER against SNR for a same intensity of turbulence (r2I )
r2I respectively. In the first case, three different scenarios for
wz/a 510, 20, and 25 are considered as given in the Figure 1. we can see that the behavior of each curve is different depend-
In all cases parameters of M turbulence were fixed as a510 and ing on the value of q. When q51, the overall scattering power
b55. Also for each value of wz/a multiple plots for different q entirely coupled to LOS component and reducing its adverse
are drawn and three different behavior were obtained: q51 effect. When q is getting reduced, the scattering power is dis-
which corresponds to a Gamma-Gamma distribution; q50:75 tributed and more harmfully effect on the FSO communication
and q50:25. system as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 2 shows the ABER for wz/a 520 and a same intensity Figure 3 shows the plot of ergodic channel capacity against
of turbulence r2I . Here we have taken r2I 5 0.40. From the figure the average received SNR. From the plot it is clear that the

Figure 1 ABER against SNR for different values of q. [Color figure can
be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.
com] Figure 3 Ergodic channel capacity

1960 MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 57, No. 8, August 2015 DOI 10.1002/mop
combined effect of pointing error and channel turbulence is
highly degrading the channel capacity of the FSO channel.
5. CONCLUSION
FSO communication is an upcoming wireless technology
designed provides the last mile access and other indoor applica-
tions. But they are greatly hampered by the channel turbulence
and pointing error effects. In this article, the effects of these
adversities are investigated by deriving the closed form expres-
sions for the ABER and ergodic channel capacity for a BPSK-
SIM FSO system. The analytical graphs of these parameters are
then plotted. These plots clearly indicate the effects of the FSO
channel on the performance of the communication system.
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V
AN INTERIOR PENALTY GALERKIN
DOMAIN DECOMPOSITION METHOD
BASED ON HIGH-ORDER BASIS
FUNCTION
Yan Shi, Zhou Chen, and Chang-Hong Liang
School of Electronic Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an, Shaanxi,
China; Corresponding author: shiyan@mail.xidian.edu.cn
Received 29 January 2015
ABSTRACT: An integral equation based domain decomposition method
(DDM) has been presented to solve electromagnetic responses of arbi-
trary targets including conducting objects in free space and microstrip
antennas and circuits. The target is decomposed into several non-
overlapping subdomains, each of which will be meshed independently.
Higher-order hierarchical Legendre basis functions are defined on each
interface boundary between all adjacent subdomains. An interior penalty
Galerkin procedure is implemented to ensure continuous boundary cur-
rent on the interface boundary. Some numerical examples are shown to
demonstrate good accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1961–
V
1965, 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI
10.1002/mop.29235
Key words: domain decomposition method; higher-order hierarchical
Legendre basis functions; interior penalty Galerkin procedure
1. INTRODUCTION
The surface integral equation (SIE) has been widely used to
analyze electromagnetic wave scattering and radiation problems,
because in the SIE the radiation condition is inherently satisfied
and a surface discretization is required. When method of
moments (MoM) is used to solve the SIE, a group of trial func-
tions representing the unknown current are defined on a simpli-
cial discretization of the target’s surface. The testing functions
are chosen to be same as the trial functions for Galerkin proce-
dure. Generally, a conformal discretization on the surface of the
target is required to guarantee the normal continuity of the
unknown current across the adjacent element boundaries. How-
ever, the conformal mesh generation procedure is tedious and
time consuming [1,2]. Various methods, such as the meshless
scheme [3] and the generalized MoM [4], and so forth. have
been proposed to solve this problem. However, the formulas in
these methods involve hyper-singular integrals. In addition, an
1961