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Performance analysis of dual-hop mixed radio

frequency/free space optical transmission systems


based on partially coherent beams over
F -distribution channel models

Xiaohui Song,a Ping Wang ,a,* Lingling Jiao,b Yuanhao Nie,a and
Shizhong Gua
a
Xidian University, School of Telecommunications Engineering,
State Key Laboratory of Integrated Service Networks, Xi’an, China
b
National University of Defense Technology, Information and Communications College,
Xi’an, China

Abstract. The performance of dual-hop mixed radio frequency (RF)/free space optical (FSO)
communication system with partially coherent beams (PCBs) is investigated on the basis of
decode-and-forward (DF) protocol. Specifically, both the RF and FSO channels are assumed
to follow F -distribution with proper selection of parameters. Taking the path loss, atmospheric
turbulence, and pointing errors into consideration, the closed-form expressions for the proba-
bility density function (PDF) and cumulative distribution function of the received signal-to-
noise ratio are derived in terms of hypergeometric function in RF and FSO links, respectively.
Subsequently, the closed-form expressions for outage probability, average bit error rate, and
ergodic channel capacity of this system with M-ary phase-shift keying and M-ary quadrature
amplitude modulation schemes are obtained on the basis of DF protocol. The results show that
shadowing in RF link as well as the pointing error and atmospheric turbulence in FSO link would
result in significant performance deterioration in dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system, while PCB
can bring significant performance improvement of mixed RF/FSO systems with pointing errors
over weak to moderate turbulence. Furthermore, the correctness of the analytical expressions is
verified by Monte Carlo simulations. This work would benefit the design and development of
the mixed RF/FSO systems. © 2022 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) [DOI:
10.1117/1.OE.61.6.066103]
Keywords: Fisher–Snedecor F -fading channel; dual-hop mixed radio frequency/free space
optical system; partially coherent beams; decode-and-forward relaying.
Paper 20211506G received Dec. 22, 2021; accepted for publication May 25, 2022; published
online Jun. 13, 2022.

1 Introduction
Free space optical (FSO) communication has attracted lots of attention because of the important
role it plays in the last-mile transmission, military operations, backhaul/fronthaul links of cellu-
lar systems, and disaster recovery, which benefits from larger capacity, higher throughput,
unlicensed spectrum, cost-effectiveness, faster network building speed, etc. in comparison with
traditional radio frequency (RF) communications.1–3 Particularly, the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO
system has been an area of emphasis in the research community in recent years, which normally
consists of one RF transmission link and one FSO transmission link. In this system, the non-line-
of-sight feature of RF link enables seamless coverage, and FSO link could provide capacity
comparable to optical fibers and is more easily deployed.4,5 Moreover, utilizing RF and FSO
in different hops could avoid electromagnetic interference.4
Up to now, a great number of efforts have been reported to investigate the performance of
the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system due to the fact that the signals at different hops would

*Address all correspondence to Ping Wang, pingwang@xidian.edu.cn

0091-3286/2022/$28.00 © 2022 SPIE

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experience variant perturbations. Most of the existing studies usually assume that RF link in
dual-hop RF/FSO system follows the Rayleigh6–9 or Nakagami-m10–13 distribution, which may
not well capture the actual fading statistics of the RF link. This is because the RF signals may
undergo not only the multipath fading but also the shadowing fading.14 Recently, Yoo et al.15
proposed the Fisher–Snedecor F -distribution as a mathematically tractable fading model that
can jointly characterize the effects of multipath and shadowing in practical communication sce-
narios, and further provide a better fit as compared with the generalized-K distribution. Specially,
Nakagami-m and Rayleigh distributions can be expressed as special cases of F -distribution
when ms → ∞ and ms → m m → 1, respectively.16 Owing to these attractive properties, it is
feasible for RF link to adopt Fisher–Snedecor F -model in the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO com-
munication system. Petkovic et al.17 investigated the outage probability (OP) performance of
dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system under gamma–gamma (GG)/F distributions with decode-
and-forward (DF) protocol, and found that multipath and shadowing components could have
an important impact on the OP performance. Actually, besides RF link, FSO link could also
affect the performance of the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system. The optical signals in FSO link
would suffer from severe attenuation owing to atmospheric turbulence and misalignment. Very
recently, Peppas et al.18 proposed that F -distribution could also be used to model the atmos-
pheric turbulence-induced fading for all turbulence conditions in the FSO communication
systems, and analyzed the performance of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system over
F -distribution. This model could provide at least as good, or even a better fit to experimental and
computer simulation results compared with well-known GG and lognormal distributions, and
adequately characterize the irradiance fluctuations with aperture averaging compared with GG
distribution.18 Badarneh and Mesleh19 first studied the performance of hybrid millimeter wave/
FSO system with selection-combining and maximal-ratio-combining receivers, where both RF
and FSO links are assumed to follow F -distribution and activate simultaneously in the one hop,
which is quite different from our considered dual-hop system. Pointing error, which is defined as
the misalignment between the optical transmitter and receiver,20 is another significant factor in
determining the link performance and reliability. As can be known, the misalignment errors are
usually caused by dynamic wind loads, mechanical misalignment, differential heating and cool-
ing, errors in tracking system or the mechanical vibrations present in the FSO system.11 In recent
years, several models have been utilized to investigate the impact of pointing errors on FSO link.
In them, the zero boresight pointing error (ZBER) model proposed in Ref. 20 is widely used
in the FSO communication systems due to its mathematical simplicity. Badarneh et al.21
first analyzed the effect of ZBER on the performance of FSO communication system over
F -distribution. Han et al.22 studied the secrecy performance of FSO communication system over
F -distribution turbulence fading channel with pointing error. However, ZBER model assumes
the boresight component is zero, which cannot be neglected due to the thermal expansion of the
building.23 Taking nonzero boresight component into account, Yang et al.24 proposed a statistical
model to describe the nonzero boresight pointing error effects, which may be mathematically
intractable. Boluda-Ruiz et al.25 then presented an accurate and useful approximation of the
Beckmann distribution to model generalized pointing errors, which includes the effect of differ-
ent jitters for the elevation and the horizontal displacements as well as the simultaneous effect of
nonzero boresight errors for each axis at the receiver plane.
Partially coherent beam (PCB) can be a promising approach to improve the performance of
FSO link owing to the robust resistance to the degrading effect of atmospheric turbulence and
pointing errors. Besides, PCB has a lower scintillation compared with fully coherent beams. Due
to these attractive features, PCB has attracted considerable research interests. Deng et al.26 stud-
ied the average channel capacity performance for MIMO FSO communication systems using
multiple PCBs propagating through non-Kolmogorov strong turbulence. Wu et al.27 investigated
the effects of weather, exponentiated Weibull turbulence and generalized pointing errors on the
performance of FSO link with PCB. These studies showed that the performance of FSO com-
munication system could be improved by decreasing the spatial coherence length. Lee et al.28
studied the joint effects of the aperture averaging and beamwidth on the performance of partially
coherent FSO communication systems under the impairments of atmospheric loss, atmospheric
turbulence, and ZBER. Zou et al.29 studied the average capacity of underwater wireless optical
communication system with PCB propagating in weak oceanic turbulence, and found that PCB

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could increase the average capacity compared with fully coherent beams. However, no studies
have been reported, to the best of our knowledge, on the performance of dual-hop mixed RF/FSO
system over F -distribution fading channels with PCB up to now.
Motivated by the aforementioned analysis, the performance of DF-based dual-hop mixed
RF/FSO system with PCBs is studied in this work. Both RF and FSO links are characterized
by F -distribution fading channels with the proper selection of parameters. The closed-form
expressions of probability density function (PDF) and cumulative distribution function (CDF)
for RF link and FSO link are derived in terms of the hypergeometric function. Capitalizing on
these derived formulas, the expressions for the end-to-end (EE) OP, average bit error rate
(ABER), and ergodic capacity under M-ary phase-shift keying (MPSK) and M-ary quadrature
amplitude modulation (MQAM) schemes are further obtained. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is
also offered to demonstrate the validity of the proposed expressions. The effects of turbulence
strength, shadowing, pointing errors and degree of spatial coherence on the performance of
mixed RF/FSO system are subsequently analyzed and discussed in detail.

2 System and Channel Model


Consider a DF-based dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system as depicted in Fig. 1, which includes a
source node (SN), a relay node (RN), and a destination node (DN). In this system, the data stream
is transmitted from SN to RN via RF link. After the electro-optical conversion, the signal is sent
to DN through FSO link. The F -distribution model is adopted to represent both the RF and FSO
channels with a proper selection of parameters. It is assumed that the SN is equipped with a
single RF antenna for transmitting RF signals, the DN is equipped with an optical aperture for
receiving optical signals, and the RN is equipped with an RF antenna for receiving RF signals
and a single-optical aperture for transmitting optical signals.

2.1 RF Link
The statistical characteristics of RF link are presented in this subsection. Let x denote the modu-
lated signal with average transmission power P1 from SN to RN. The received signal ySR at
RN can be expressed as30
pffiffiffiffiffiffi
ySR ¼ P1 h1 x þ n1 ;
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e001;116;356 (1)

where h1 is the RF fading channel coefficient with E½h21  ¼ 1, n1 denotes the complex additive
white Gaussian noise (AWGN) with zero mean and the variance of Efjn1 j2 g ¼ σ 21 , where E½·
and j · j represent the expectation and absolute value operators, respectively.

FSO link

RF link

Source node Relay node Destination node

Turbulence Pointing error

Fig. 1 The dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system model.

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In Eq. (1), the RF fading channel coefficient h1 is modeled as Fischer–Snedecor F -distri-


bution, whose PDF is given as15

2mm ðms − 1Þms Ωms h2m−1


f h1 ðh1 Þ ¼ 1
; ms > 1; (2)
Bðm; ms Þðmh21 þ ðms − 1ÞΩÞmþms
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e002;116;711

where Bð·; ·Þ denotes the beta function, Ω ¼ E½h21  represents the mean power, and m and ms are
the components of the multipath and shadowing, respectively. As ms → 0, the scattered signal
component experiences heavy shadowing. Conversely, as ms → ∞, no shadowing exists in the
wireless channel.
Using the definition of the CDF FX ðxÞ ≜ ∫ x0 f X ðtÞdt, the CDF of h1 can be expressed as
Z h1 2mm ðms − 1Þms t2 m−1
Fh1 ðh1 Þ ¼ dt: (3)
Bðm; ms Þðt2 þ ðms − 1ÞÞmþms
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e003;116;603

By performing the variable change y ¼ t2 ∕h21 and after some mathematical manipulations,
Eq. (3) becomes
Z 1    −ðmþm Þ
mm h2m mh21 s
Fh1 ðh1 Þ ¼ 1
× y m−1 1− − y dy: (4)
Bðm; ms Þðms − 1Þm ðm −
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e004;116;532

0 s 1Þ

With the help of [Ref. 31, Eq. (9.111)], the CDF can be simplified as
 
mm−1 h2m mh21
Fh1 ðh1 Þ ¼ 1
× F m þ m s ; m; m þ 1; − ; (5)
Bðm; ms Þðms − 1Þm 2 1 ðms − 1Þ
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e005;116;473

where 2 F1 ð·; ·; ·; ·Þ is the Gauss hypergeometric function.


According to Eq. (1), the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the RF link can be
denoted as

γ 1 ¼ γ 1 h21 ;
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e006;116;392 (6)

where the average SNR γ 1 is defined as


P1
γ1 ¼ : (7)
σ 21
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e007;116;348

Based on the concept of transformation of random variables (RVs), the PDF and CDF of the
instantaneous SNR γ 1 can be derived as

mm γ m−1
f γ1 ðγ 1 Þ ¼  1 mþm ; (8)
Bðm; ms Þγ m
1 ðms − 1Þ
m
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e008;116;279

γ 1 ðms −1Þ γ 1 þ1
m

and
 
mm−1 γ m mγ 1
Fγ1 ðγ 1 Þ ¼ 1
F m þ m s ; m; m þ 1; − : (9)
Bðm; ms Þγ m
1 ðms − 1Þ
m2 1 γ 1 ðms − 1Þ
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e009;116;208

2.2 FSO Link

2.2.1 Channel model


The signal at the output of the FSO receiver can be expressed as30

yRD ¼ ηP2 h2 x þ n2 ;
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e010;116;88 (10)

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where η and P2 correspond to the optical-electrical conversion coefficient and average transmit-
ted optical power, respectively. n2 is the zero mean complex AWGN with variance σ 22 , and h2
represents the channel fading coefficient of the FSO transmission link, which can be given as

h2 ¼ hl ha hp ;
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e011;116;699 (11)

where hl , ha , and hp represent the atmospheric path loss, turbulence, and pointing errors,
respectively.
The atmospheric path loss hl does not exhibit randomness in its behavior for a long period of
time (on the order of hours) and is usually considered as a constant,19 which can be expressed as
hl ¼ e−σL , where L and σ denote the length of the atmospheric path and the atmospheric attenu-
ation coefficient, respectively.
F -distribution is adopted to describe the turbulence-induced fading over FSO link between
the transmitter and receiver. In this case, the PDF of ha is given as18

aa ðb − 1Þb ha−1
a
f ha ðha Þ ¼ ; (12)
Bða; bÞðaha þ b − 1Þaþb
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e012;116;569

where a and b represent two important parameters describing the atmospheric refractive-index
structure parameter, the propagation path length, and the inner and outer scale of turbulence.
The parameters a and b can be obtained as

1 1
a¼ and b ¼ þ 2; (13)
expðσ 2ln S Þ − 1 expðσ 2ln L Þ − 1
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e013;116;488

where σ 2ln S and σ 2ln L correspond to the small- and large-scale log-irradiance variances, respec-
tively, which can be calculated according to the expressions provided in Ref. 32.
The radial displacement vector at the receiver plane can be expressed as r ¼ ½x; yT , where
x and y are the horizontal displacement and the elevation of the beam, respectively. Both x and y
are modeled as the independent Gaussian RVs, i.e., x ∼ N ðμx ; σ x Þ, y ∼ N ðμy ; σ y Þ. From the
modified Rayleigh distribution approximation, the PDF of pointing errors can be given as25

ϕ2mod ϕ2 −1
f hp ðhp Þ ≃ ϕ2mod
hpmod ; 0 ≤ hp ≤ A0 G; (14)
ðA0 GÞ
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e014;116;368

where ϕmod ¼ ωLeq ∕2σ mod , where ωLeq and σ mod are the equivalent beam width and the parameter
pffiffiffi
of modified Rayleigh distribution, respectively. ω2Leq ¼ ω2L π erfðvÞ∕2ve−v and σ 2mod ¼
2

½ð3μ2x σ 4x þ 3μ2y σ 4y þ σ 6x þ σ 6y Þ∕21∕3 . A0 ¼ ½erfðvÞ2 denotes the fraction of the collected power
pffiffiffi pffiffiffi
at r ¼ 0, and v ¼ ð π dr Þ∕ð 2ωL Þ represents the ratio between aperture radius dr and
beam width ωL . ϕx ¼ ωLeq ∕2σ x and ϕy ¼ ωLeq ∕2σ y are the ratios of the equivalent beam to
the variance of corresponding displacement at the receiver. The modification factor is
μ2
G ¼ expðϕ21 − 2ϕ1 2 − 2ϕ1 2 − 2σμ2xϕ2 − 2σ 2yϕ2 Þ.
2

mod x y x x y y

The PDF and CDF of FSO link in the presence of atmospheric path loss, turbulence, and
pointing errors can be expressed as
 
ϕ2mod hbl Ab0 Gb ðb − 1Þb ð1 − bÞhl A0 G
f h2 ðh2 Þ ¼ b b−1 × F1 a þ b; b þ ϕmod ; b þ ϕmod þ 1;
2 2
;
a h2 Bða; bÞðb þ ϕ2mod Þ 2
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e015;116;194

ah2
(15)

and

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ϕ2mod hbl Ab0 Gb ðb − 1Þb


EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e016;116;735

Fh2 ðh2 Þ ¼ 1 −
ab bhb2 Bða; bÞðb þ ϕ2mod Þ
 
ð1 − bÞhl A0 G
× 3 F2 a þ b; b þ ϕ2mod ; b; b þ ϕ2mod þ 1; b þ 1; ; (16)
ah2

respectively. The detailed derivations for the PDF and CDF are presented in Appendix A.
According to Eq. (10), the instantaneous SNR for FSO link can be written as21

γ 2 ¼ ðηP2 h2 Þ2 ∕σ 22 :
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e017;116;646 (17)

As can be known, the average SNR for FSO link is defined as

η2 P22 2
γ2 ¼ E ½h2 : (18)
σ 22
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e018;116;601

With the help of transformation of RVs, the PDF and CDF of the received SNR can be respec-
tively expressed as
b
ðb − 1Þb ðϕ2mod þ 1Þb γ̄ 22
f γ2 ðγ 2 Þ ¼
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e019;116;530

b
þ1
2ðb−1Þ
2ϕmod ab Bða; bÞðb þ ϕ2mod Þγ 22
 1
ð1 − bÞðϕ2mod þ 1Þγ 22
× 2 F1 a þ b; b þ ϕmod ; b þ ϕmod þ 1;
2 2
1 ; (19)
aϕ2mod γ 22

and
b
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e020;116;427

ðb − 1Þb ðϕ2mod þ 1Þb γ 22


Fγ2 ðγ 2 Þ ¼ 1 − b
2ðb−1Þ
ab bϕmod Bða; bÞðb þ ϕ2mod Þγ 22
 1
ð1 − bÞðϕ2mod þ 1Þγ 22
× 3 F2 a þ b; b þ ϕmod ; b; b þ ϕmod þ 1; b þ 1;
2 2
1 : (20)
aϕ2mod γ 22

2.2.2 Beam model


The Gaussian–Schell beam model27–29 is adopted in this work. After propagating a distance L
along the atmospheric turbulent channel, the received beam size can be expressed as
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ωL ¼ ω0 Θ2n þ ξΛ2n ; (21) EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e021;116;275

where ω0 is the source beam width at the exit aperture of the optical transmitter, and the
normalized components of the collimated Gaussian-beam wave are defined as

Θn ¼ 1
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e022;116;212 and Λn ¼ 2L∕kω20 ; (22)

where k ¼ 2π∕λ is the optical wave number, and λ is the laser wavelength. The global coherence
parameter is a measure of the global degree of coherence of light across each transversal plane
along the propagation path, which is denoted as

ξ ¼ ξ0 þ 2ω20 ∕ρ20 :
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e023;116;144 (23)

The source coherence parameter ξ0 describes the degree of partial (spatial) coherence of the
source laser beam, which is expressed as

ξ0 ¼ 1 þ 2ω20 ∕l2c ;
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e024;116;87 (24)

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where lc is the spatial coherence length. In the case of ξ0 ¼ 1, the beam is considered as com-
pletely coherent, and in the case of ξ0 > 1, the beam is considered as partially coherent. The
coherence length ρ0 is given as

ρ0 ¼ ½0.55C2n k2 L−3∕5 :
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e025;116;699 (25)

ΘL and ΛL are the receiver beam parameters, which can be denoted as

ΘL ¼ 1 þ L∕FL
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e026;116;655 and ΛL ¼ 2L∕kω2L ; (26)

where the phase front radius of curvature for the PCB at the receiver is defined as

LðΘ2n þ ξΛ2n Þ Θn Λn ω20


FL ¼ with φ ¼ − 2 : (27)
φΛn − ξΛ2n − Θ2n Λn ρ0
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e027;116;611

3 Performance Analysis
The mathematical expressions of OP, average bit error rate and channel capacity of end-to-end
link are derived in this section considering the effect of atmospheric turbulence and pointing
errors. The overall SNR for the DF-based mixed RF/FSO transmission system can be expressed
by γ ¼ minðγ 1 ; γ 2 Þ.33 Therefore, the CDF of equivalent end-to-end SNR γ can be written as

Fγ ðγÞ ¼ Fγ1 ðγÞ þ Fγ2 ðγÞ − Fγ1 ðγÞFγ2 ðγÞ:


EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e028;116;473 (28)

Substituting Eqs (9) and (20). and into Eq. (28), the CDF can be expressed as

ðb − 1Þb ðϕ2mod þ 1Þb γ̄ 2 2


EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e029;116;428

Fγ ðγÞ ¼ 1 − 2ðb−1Þ
ϕmod ab bBða; bÞðb þ ϕ2mod Þγ 2
b

 1
ð1 − bÞðϕ2mod þ 1Þγ 2 2
× 3 F2 a þ b; b þ ϕ2mod ; b; b þ ϕ2mod þ 1; b þ 1;
aϕ2mod γ 2
1

ðb − 1Þb ðϕ2mod þ 1Þb γ̄ 2 2 mm−1 γ m−2


b b

þ 2ðb−1Þ
ϕmod ab bBða; bÞBðm; ms Þðb þ ϕ2mod Þðms − 1Þm ðγ 1 Þm
 

× 2 F1 m þ ms; m; m þ 1; −
γ 1 ðms − 1Þ
 b
ð1 − bÞðϕ2mod þ 1Þγ̄ 2 2
× 3 F2 a þ b; b þ ϕmod ; b; b þ ϕmod þ 1; b þ 1;
2 2 : (29)
aϕ2mod γ 2
1

3.1 Outage Probability


As an important performance criterion for digital communication systems subjecting to fading
channels, OP is the probability that the received SNR falls below a given threshold γ th , which can
be defined as

Pout ðγ th Þ ¼ Prðγ ≤ γ th Þ ¼ Fγ ðγ th Þ:
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e030;116;178 (30)

By replacing γ by γ th in Eq. (29), the OP for the mixed RF/FSO system using DF relay
scheme can be written as

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ðb − 1Þb ðϕ2mod þ 1Þb γ̄ 2 2


EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e031;116;735

Pout ðγ th Þ ¼ 1 − b
2ðb−1Þ
ϕmod ab bBða; bÞðb þ ϕ2mod Þγ th
2

 1
ð1 − bÞðϕ2mod þ 1Þγ 2 2
× 3 F2 a þ b; b þ ϕmod ; b; b þ ϕmod þ 1; b þ 1;
2 2
1
aϕ2mod γ th
2

m−b2
mm−1 ðb − 1Þb ðϕ2mod þ 1Þb γ̄ 2 2 γ th
b

× 2ðb−1Þ
ab bðb þ ϕ2mod Þϕmod Bðm; ms ÞBða; bÞðms − 1Þm ðγ 1 Þm
 
mγ th
× 2 F1 m þ ms; m; m þ 1; −
γ 1 ðms − 1Þ
 1
ð1 − bÞðϕ2mod þ 1Þγ 2 2
× 3 F2 a þ b; b þ ϕmod ; b; b þ ϕmod þ 1; b þ 1;
2 2
1 : (31)
aϕ2mod γ th
2

3.2 Average Bit Error Rate


In this subsection, the ABER performance of our considered system is analyzed. For a DF re-
laying system, the ABER is given as34

Pb ¼ Pb1 þ Pb2 − 2Pb1 Pb2 ;


EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e032;116;504 (32)

where Pb1 and Pb2 represent the ABER of RF link and FSO link, respectively.
The ABER for different modulation schemes can be expressed as35
Z  
∞ pffiffiffiffiffi
Pb ¼ p
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e033;116;449 erfc qγ f γ ðγÞdγ; (33)
0

where p ¼ 12, q ¼ 1 for BPSK; p ¼ log21ðMÞ, q ¼ sin2 ðMπ Þ log2 ðMÞ for MPSK (M > 2);
pffiffiffiffi

p ¼ 2ð1−1∕ 3ðlog2 MÞ
log2 M , q ¼ 2ðM−1Þ for MQAM.
The ABER of the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system can be expressed as
  
 1 − m − ms ; 1 − m; 12 − m
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e034;116;359

mm p m 
Pb ¼ pffiffiffi m m G 1;3
π q γ̄ 1 ðms − 1Þm ΓðmÞΓðms Þ 3;2 qðms − 1Þγ̄ 1  0; −m
  1 ϕmod þ1 ϕmod þ2 
2 2
2aþb−3 ϕ2mod p 4;4 a2 ϕ4mod  1−b 2−b
2 ; 2 ; 1; 2 ; ; 2
þ G6;5  2
ðπÞ2 ΓðaÞΓðbÞ
3
qðb − 1Þ2 ðϕ2mod þ 1Þ2 γ̄ 2  a ; aþ1 ; ϕ2mod ; ϕ2mod þ1 ; 0
2 2 2 2
  
2 ϕmod p m
aþb−2 2 2 m
m  1 − m − ms ; 1 − m; 12 − m
− 2 m m G 1;3 
π q γ̄ 1 ðms − 1Þm ΓðmÞΓðms ÞΓðaÞΓðbÞ 3;2 qðms − 1Þγ̄ 1  0; −m
  ϕ 2 þ1 ϕ2 þ2 
a2 ϕ4mod  1−b ; 2−b ; 1; 12 ; mod2 ; mod2
× G4;4  2 2 : (34)
6;5
qðb − 1Þ ðϕmod þ 1Þ γ̄ 2
2 2 2  a aþ1 ϕmod ϕmod þ1
2 2

2; 2 ; 2 ; 2 ;0

In this work, the detailed derivation for the ABER expression of dual-hop mixed RF/FSO
system is presented in Appendix B.

3.3 Ergodic Capacity


The ergodic capacity in the DF relaying system is expressed as36

CDF ¼ minfC1 ; C2 g;
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e035;116;129 (35)

where C1 represents the ergodic capacity of RF link, and C2 denotes the ergodic capacity of
FSO link.

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As is known, the ergodic channel capacity in the presence of fading is defined as


Z ∞
C1 ¼ log2 ð1 þ γ 1 Þfðγ 1 Þdγ 1 : EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e036;116;723 (36)
0

Substituting Eq. (8) in Eq. (36), C1 can be given as37

ψðm þ ms Þ − ψðms Þ ðms − 1Þγ̄ 1 − m


C1 ¼ þ
ðm þ ms Þ lnð2Þ
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e037;116;667

lnð2Þ
 
m − ðms − 1Þγ̄ 1
× 3 F2 1;1; 1 þ m; 2;1 þ m þ ms ; ; (37)
m

where ψð·Þ is the digamma function.


For intensity modulation/direct detection (IM/DD), the ergodic capacity of FSO transmission
is defined as C2 ¼ E½log2 ð1 þ eγ∕2πÞ. It should be noted that, this expression acts as a lower
bound of ergodic channel capacity for IM/DD. Moreover, the ergodic channel capacity can be
denoted as
Z ∞  
e
C2 ¼ log2 1 þ γ 2 f γ2 ðγ 2 Þdγ 2 : (38) EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e038;116;533

0 2π

To obtain an exact closed-form solution of Eq. (38), the PDF for the FSO transmission link
Eq. (19) can be rewritten with the help of [Ref. 38, Eq. (8.4.49.14)] and [Ref. 31, Eq. (9.315)]
 1  
ϕ2mod γ −1 aϕ2mod γ 22  1 − b; ϕ2 þ 1
f γ2 ðγ 2 Þ ¼ 2 2;1
G2;2 1
 mod : (39)
a; ϕ2mod
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e039;116;463

2ΓðaÞΓðbÞ ðb − 1Þðϕ2mod þ 1Þγ̄ 22

Substituting Eq. (39) into Eq. (38) and replacing logarithm function with Meijer’s G-func-
tion, C2 can be expressed as
Z     1  
ϕ2mod ∞ e  1;1 aϕ2mod γ 22  1 − b; ϕ2 þ 1

C2 ¼ γ −1 1;2
2 G2.2 γ2  2;1
G2;2 1
mod dγ 2 :
2π 1;0 a; ϕ2mod
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e040;116;385

2 lnð2ÞΓðaÞΓðbÞ 0 ðb − 1Þðϕ2 þ 1Þγ̄ 2


mod 2
(40)

Finally, by using [Ref. 39, Eq. (21)], the ergodic channel capacity of the FSO transmission
link can be obtained as
  1−b 2−b 1þϕ2mod 2þϕ2mod 
ϕ2mod 2aþb−1 2πa2 ϕ4mod 
C2 ¼ × G6;3  2 ; 2 ; 0;1; 2 ; 2
: (41)
eðb − 1Þ2 ðϕ2mod þ 1Þ2 γ̄ 2  a ; aþ1 ; ϕmod ; ϕmod þ1 ; 0;0
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e041;116;294

6;6 2 2
4πΓðaÞΓðbÞ lnð2Þ
2 2 2 2

4 Results and Discussions


In this section, the numerical results for the derived expressions of the OP, ABER, and ergodic
capacity in the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system are presented and analyzed. The adopted param-
eters for the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system are provided in Table 1. Moreover, three conditions
of the atmospheric turbulence (weak, moderate, and strong turbulence) are investigated by
using the intensity of atmospheric turbulence C2n ¼ 7 × 10−15 m−2∕3 , C2n ¼ 5 × 10−14 m−2∕3 ,
and C2n ¼ 3 × 10−13 m−2∕3 , respectively. We set ms ¼ 1.5, ms ¼ 5, and ms ¼ 50 for heavy,
moderate, and light shadowing effect, respectively. Unless otherwise stated, the jitter values are
ðσ x ; σ y Þ ¼ ð5 cm; 5 cmÞ with boresight error values of ðμx ; μy Þ ¼ ð0;0Þ. MC simulations are also
carried out to verify the correctness of the presented results. Without loss of generality, the same
average SNRs in each link are assumed, i.e., γ̄ 1 ¼ γ̄ 2 .5

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Table 1 Parameters of the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system.

Parameter Symbol Value

Multipath component m 3.5

SNR threshold γt h 0 dB

Wavelength λ 1550 nm

Inner scale of turbulence l0 5.69 mm

Outer scale of turbulence L0 0.8 m

Link distance L 1 km

Electrical-optical conversion ratio η 0.8

Receiver aperture D 10 mm

Spatial coherence length lc 5 mm

Figure 2 depicts the ABERs of dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system over the moderate atmos-
pheric turbulence considering the impact of moderate shadowing. The signals are modulated by
BPSK, 16PSK, 16QAM, 64PSK, or 64QAM, respectively. As can be found, all the analytical
results agree well with MC simulations, which thus verifies the effectiveness of our proposed
models. The ABER performances would get worse by the increasing modulation order M for
MPSK and MQAM. For example, when SNR equals 40 dB, the corresponding ABERs are
5.36 × 10−6 , 3.91 × 10−5 , 6.02 × 10−4 , 1.50 × 10−5 , and 6.20 × 10−4 for BPSK, 16PSK, 64PSK,
16QAM, and 64QAM schemes, respectively. This is because for a fixed maximum transmission
power, the Euclidean distance in the constellation diagram would decrease with the increment of
M, which would result in the deterioration of system ABER performance. Besides, the increment
of M would enhance the bandwidth utilization of communication channel and power
efficiency.40,41 Furthermore, the ABER performances of 16PSK and 64PSK schemes are worse
than those of 16QAM and 64QAM. For instance, to achieve an ABER of 10−4 , the required
SNRs for 16PSK and 64PSK are ∼36 and 44.9 dB, respectively. While the corresponding
SNRs for 16QAM and 64QAM are only about 33.1 and 36.8 dB, respectively. This is because
MQAM scheme normally uses both intensity modulation and phase modulation at a time.

100

10–1
ms = 5
10–2
ABER

10–3

10–4 BPSK
16PSK
16QAM
10–5 64PSK
64QAM
MC simulation
10–6
0 10 20 30 40 50
Average SNR (dB)

Fig. 2 End-to-end performance of dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system for different modulation
schemes under the condition of moderate turbulence.

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However, this would be achieved at the cost of the increased implementation complexity. Thus,
considering both the ABER performance and implementation complexity, the BPSK modulation
scheme is finally considered in this work.
The OP performance against the average SNR of dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system is depicted
in Figs. 3(a), 3(c), and 3(e) considering the impact of shadowing in different atmospheric tur-
bulence regimes, and the ABER performance is illustrated in Figs. 3(b), 3(d), and 3(f). As can be
found, as the strength of atmospheric turbulence increases, the end-to-end OP performance of
dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system would deteriorate. Specifically, when the average SNR is equal
to 30 dB under the condition of light shadowing, the OP values of end-to-end links are roughly
2.4 × 10−5 , 3.8 × 10−4 , and 9.5 × 10−3 for weak, moderate, and strong turbulence, respectively.
Moreover, it can be observed that the OP performance of RF transmission link would be
enhanced with the increasing ms , while the effect of ms on the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system
could be ignored as the average SNR increases. For example, for ms ¼ 1.5, ms ¼ 5, and

(a) 10 0
(b) 100

10-1 10-1
ms = 1.5 ms = 1.5
10-2 10-2

ABER
OP

10-3 10-3
RF link RF link
weak turbulence,FSO link weak turbulence,FSO link
10-4 weak turbulence,EE link 10-4 weak turbulence,EE link
moderate turbulence,FSO link moderate turbulence,FSO link
moderate turbulence,EE link moderate turbulence,EE link
strong turbulence, FSO link strong turbulence, FSO link
10-5 strong turbulence,EE link 10-5 strong turbulence,EE link
RF link simulation RF link simulation
FSO link simulation FSO link simulation
EE link simulation EE link simulation
10-6 10-6
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
Average SNR (dB) Average SNR (dB)

(c) 10 0 (d) 10 0

10-1 10-1

ms = 5 ms = 5
10-2 10-2
ABER
OP

10-3 10-3
RF link RF link
weak turbulence,FSO link weak turbulence,FSO link
10-4 weak turbulence,EE link 10-4 weak turbulence,EE link
moderate turbulence,FSO link moderate turbulence,FSO link
moderate turbulence,EE link moderate turbulence,EE link
strong turbulence, FSO link strong turbulence, FSO link
10-5 strong turbulence,EE link 10-5 strong turbulence,EE link
RF link simulation RF link simulation
FSO link simulation FSO link simulation
EE link simulation EE link simulation
10-6 10-6
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
Average SNR (dB) Average SNR (dB)

(e) 10 0 (f) 100

10-1 10-1
ms = 50 ms = 50
10-2 10-2
ABER
OP

10-3 10-3
RF link RF link
weak turbulence,FSO link weak turbulence,FSO link
10-4 weak turbulence,EE link 10-4 weak turbulence,EE link
moderate turbulence,FSO link moderate turbulence,FSO link
moderate turbulence,EE link moderate turbulence,EE link
strong turbulence, FSO link strong turbulence, FSO link
10-5 strong turbulence,EE link 10-5 strong turbulence,EE link
RF link simulation RF link simulation
FSO link simulation FSO link simulation
EE link simulation EE link simulation
10-6 10-6
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
Average SNR (dB) Average SNR (dB)

Fig. 3 (a)–(f) End-to-end performance of the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system against average
SNR, compared with the performance curves of RF and FSO links.

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(a) 10 0
(b) 10 0

10–1 10–1

10–2 10–2

ms = 1.5 ms = 1.5

ABER
OP 10–3
10–3

10–4 10–4

10–5 10–5

10–6 10–6
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
Average SNR (dB) Average SNR (dB)

Fig. 4 (a) and (b) End-to-end performance of dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system for various effects
of pointing errors under the condition of moderate turbulence.

ms ¼ 50, the end-to-end OP values at SNR ¼ 10 dB are ∼0.11, 0.028, and 0.024, respectively,
while all the values of end-to-end OP at SNR ¼ 35 dB are about 4.4 × 10−6 . Specifically, similar
trend could be found in the ABER performance curves. This is because the end-to-end perfor-
mance of the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system would be affected by the performances of both
RF and FSO transmission links. However, when the channel state of RF transmission link is in
much better condition compared with FSO transmission link, i.e., the OP and ABER of the RF
transmission link are far less than those of FSO transmission link, RF transmission link could
have a negligible influence on the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system. Moreover, it could be found
that as the average SNR increases, the performance curves of end-to-end link would coincide
with those of FSO transmission link, thus FSO transmission link will become the dominant
limitation in the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system. In addition, the FSO link becomes the dom-
inant limitation more rapidly as ms increases. For instance, as can be observed in Figs. 3(b), 3(d),
and 3(f), the FSO transmission link acts as the dominant limitation over weak turbulence when
the average SNR equals to 15, 18, and 28 dB in the light, moderate, and heavy shadowing sce-
narios, respectively.
Figure 4 investigates the impacts of jitters and boresight errors for each axis at the receiver
plane on the OP and ABER performances of the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system under the
condition of moderate turbulence. As can be seen, the OP and ABER performances of end-
to-end link would be notably decreased as the values of the jitter or boresight error increase.
Especially, when the average SNR is equal to 40 dB, the ABERs for jitter values of
ðσ x ; σ y Þ ¼ fð5 cm; 5 cmÞ; ð10 cm; 5 cmÞ; ð10 cm; 10 cmÞg together with boresight error values
of ðμx ; μy Þ ¼ ð0;0Þ are 1.4 × 10−5 , 9.8 × 10−3 , and 2.1 × 10−2 , respectively, and the ABERs of
boresight error values of ðμx ; μy Þ ¼ fð0;0Þ; ð5 cm; 0Þ; ð5 cm; 5 cmÞg together with jitter values
of ðσ x ; σ y Þ ¼ ð5 cm; 5 cmÞ are 1.4 × 10−5 , 1.0 × 10−4 , and 2.8 × 10−4 , respectively. The reason
is that when the values of jitter or boresight error increase, the effect of misalignment between the
transmitter and receiver would become more serious, therefore, resulting in the deterioration of
the performance of dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system. Particularly, the performance curves of
mixed RF/FSO system decrease almost linearly as the average SNR increases.
Figure 5 is plotted to reflect the impact of the degree of partial coherence of PCB on the dual-
hop mixed RF/FSO system performance in weak to moderate atmospheric turbulence regimes.
It could be found that the OP and ABER performances of dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system
are apparently improved by increasing the degree of partial coherence of PCB. For instance,
to achieve the OP of 10−2 , ξ0 ¼ 800 offers 20 dB performance gain in SNR than ξ0 ¼ 1 (fully
coherence beams) does in the weak turbulence. Moreover, the PCB is superior to fully coherent
beam in terms of OP and ABER performance. Figure 6 illustrates the ergodic capacity per unit
bandwidth of RF and FSO transmission links considering the impact of different shadowing
and atmospheric turbulence. As can be found, the ergodic channel capacity of FSO transmission
link decreases when the strength of atmospheric turbulence increases, and the ergodic channel
capacity of RF transmission link decreases as the shadowing component ms decreases.

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(a) 100 (b) 100

10–1 10–1

10–2 10–2
ms = 5 ms = 5

ABER
OP –3 Weak turbulence ξ 0=800 –3 Weak turbulence ξ0=800
10 10
Weak turbulence ξ 0=400 Weak turbulence ξ0=400
Weak turbulence ξ 0=100 Weak turbulence ξ0=100
10–4 Weak turbulence ξ 0=1 10–4 Weak turbulence ξ0=1
Moderate turbulence ξ 0=800 Moderate turbulence ξ0=800
Moderate turbulence ξ 0=400 Moderate turbulence ξ0=400
10–5 Moderate turbulence ξ 0=100 10–5 Moderate turbulence ξ0=100
Moderate turbulence ξ 0=1 Moderate turbulence ξ0=1
MC simulation MC simulation
10–6 10–6
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
Average SNR (dB) Average SNR (dB)

Fig. 5 (a) and (b) End-to-end performance of dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system for different
degrees of partial coherence under the condition of weak to moderate turbulence regimes.

18
RF link, heavy shadowing
RF link, moderate shadowing
16
RF link, light shadowing
Ergodic capacity [bits/Sec/Hz]

FSO link, weak turbulence


14 FSO link, moderate turbulence
FSO link, strong turbulence
12

10

8 RF link
FSO link
6

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Average SNR (dB)

Fig. 6 The influence of turbulence strength and shadowing on the ergodic capacity of RF and FSO
transmission links.

5 Conclusion
The performance analysis of the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system is presented over F -distribu-
tion channel models with PCB. The optical signals propagating in the FSO transmission link are
assumed to undergo path loss, F -distribution turbulence, and generalized pointing errors. In
particular, the closed-form expressions of the PDF and CDF for RF and FSO transmission links
are derived, respectively. The closed-form expression of the CDF for the dual-hop mixed RF/
FSO system with DF relaying scheme is then derived. Based on these results, the OP, ABER, and
ergodic channel capacity expressions for MPSK and MQAM schemes are derived in terms of
hypergeometric and Meijer’s G-functions. The studies demonstrate that the performance of the
OP, ABER, and ergodic channel capacity would be improved as the impact of shadowing
decreases. Furthermore, the performance of dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system would be deterio-
rated when the atmospheric turbulence condition or pointing errors effect get worse. However,
the use of PCB could significantly improve the system performance by mitigating turbulence-
induced scintillations and pointing errors. Moreover, MC simulation results validate the accuracy
of derived expressions. This work would provide useful insights for the design and deployment
of dual-hop mixed RF/FSO communication systems.

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6 Appendix A
The detailed derivations for the PDF and CDF of FSO link are shown.
The PDF of the composite fading coefficient h2 can be written as
Z
f h2 ðh2 Þ ¼ f h2 jha ðh2 jha Þf ha ðha Þdha ; EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e042;116;692 (42)

where f h2 jha ðh2 jha Þ is the conditional PDF, and can be expressed as
 
1 h2
f h2 jha ðh2 jha Þ ¼
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e043;116;636 f hp : (43)
hl ha hl ha

Substituting Eqs. (12) and (14) and into Eq. (42), we could obtain

ϕ2 −1 Z a−ϕ2 −1
ϕ2mod h2 mod aa ðb − 1Þb ha mod ∞
f h2 ðh2 Þ ¼ dha : (44)
hl mod A0 mod Gϕmod Bða; bÞ hl A20 G ðaha þ b − 1Þ
ϕ 2 ϕ 2 aþb
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e044;116;578

2 h

By applying [Ref. 31, Eq. (9.111)] and after some manipulations, Eq. (44) can be calculated
as
 
ϕ2mod hbl Ab0 Gb ðb − 1Þb ð1 − bÞhl A0 G
f h2 ðh2 Þ ¼ × F
2 1 a þ b; b þ ϕ 2 ; b þ ϕ2 þ 1; :
2 Bða; bÞðb þ ϕmod Þ
mod mod
ab hb−1 2
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e045;116;500

ah2
(45)

The CDF of the h2 can be obtained as


Z h2 ϕ2mod hbl Ab0 Gb ðb − 1Þb
Fh2 ðh2 Þ ¼
a tbþ1 Bða; bÞðb þ ϕ2mod Þ
b
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e046;116;427

0
 
ð1 − bÞhl A0 G
× 2 F1 a þ b; b þ ϕ2mod ; b þ ϕ2mod þ 1; dt: (46)
at

By applying [Ref. 38, Eq. (2.21.1.4)] and after some mathematical manipulations, the CDF of
h2 can be denoted as

ϕ2mod hbl Ab0 Gb ðb − 1Þb


Fh2 ðh2 Þ ¼ 1 −
a bhb2 Bða; bÞðb þ ϕ2mod Þ
b
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e047;116;327

 
ð1 − bÞhl A0 G
× 3 F2 a þ b; b þ ϕ2mod ; b; b þ ϕ2mod þ 1; b þ 1; : (47)
ah2

7 Appendix B
Here, the detailed calculation for the ABER of the dual-hop mixed RF/FSO system with MPSK
and MQAM schemes is presented. Substituting Eq. (8) into Eq. (33), the ABER of RF link can
be written as
Z   −ðmþm Þ
mm p ∞ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi m s
Pb1 ¼ γ m−1 erfc qγ 1 γ þ1 dγ 1 : (48)
Bðm; ms Þγ̄ m
1 ðms − 1Þ
m 1
γ̄ 1 ðms − 1Þ 1
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e048;116;171

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
By expressing erfcð qγ 1 Þ and ðγ̄1 ðmms −1Þ γ 1 þ 1Þ−ðmþms Þ in terms of Meijer’s G-function with
the help of [Ref. 38, Eq. (8.4.2.5)] and [Ref. 38, Eq. (8.4.14.2)], respectively, the ABER for the
RF link can be derived as

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mm p
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e049;116;735

Pb1 ¼ pffiffiffi
π Bðm; ms Þγ̄ 1 ðms − 1Þm Γðm þ ms Þ
m
Z ∞      
 1 m  1 − m − ms
× γ 1 G12 qγ 1 
m−1 20  11
G11 q γ  dγ 1 : (49)
0 0;1∕2 γ̄ 1 ðms − 1Þ 1  0

Using [Ref. 33, Eq. (2.24.1.1)], the ABER of RF link can be further calculated as
  
mm p m  1 − m − ms ; 1 − m; 1 − m
Pb1 ¼ pffiffiffi m G 1;3  2 :
π q Bðm; ms Þγ̄ m
1 ðms − 1Þ Γðm þ ms Þ
m 3;2
qðms − 1Þγ 1  0; −m
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e050;116;657

(50)

Similarly, substituting Eq. (19) into Eq. (33), the ABER of FSO link can be expressed as
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e051;116;580

b Z pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
pðb − 1Þb ðϕ2mod þ 1Þb γ̄ 22 ∞ −b−1
Pb2 ¼ 2ðb−1Þ
× γ 2 2 erfc qγ 2
2ϕmod ab Bða; bÞðb þ ϕ2mod Þ 0
 1 
ð1 − bÞðϕ2mod þ 1Þγ 22
× 2 F1 a þ b; b þ ϕ2mod ; b þ ϕ2mod þ 1; 1 dγ 2 : (51)
aϕ2mod γ 22
pffi
Using the Meijer’s G-function to replace erfcð ·Þ and 2 F1 ð·; ·; ·; ·Þ with the help of [Ref. 38,
Eq. (8.4.2.5)] and [Ref. 38, Eq. (8.4.49.13)], the ABER of FSO link can be written as
Z     1  
ϕ2 p ∞  1 aϕ2mod γ 22  1 − b; 1 þ ϕ2
Pb2 ¼ pffiffiffi mod γ −1 2;0
2 G1;2 qγ 2  1 G2;1 1
 mod dγ :
2 π ΓðaÞΓðbÞ 0; 2;2 a; ϕ2mod 2
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e052;116;462

0 2 ðb − 1Þðϕ2mod þ 1Þγ 2 2
(52)

Then, with the help of [Ref. 38, Eq. (2.24.1.1)], the ABER of FSO link can be further derived
as
  1−b 2−b 1 ϕmod þ1 ϕmod þ2


2 2
2aþb−3 ϕ2mod p a2 ϕ4mod  2 ; 2 ; 1; 22 ; 22 ; 2
Pb2 ¼ G4;4 : (53)
3
ðπÞ2 ΓðaÞΓðbÞ
6;5
qðb − 1Þ2 ðϕ2mod þ 1Þ2 γ 2  a ; aþ1 ; ϕmod ; ϕmod þ1 ; 0
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e053;116;371

2 2 2 2

Thus, substituting Eqs. (53) and (53) and into Eq. (32), the ABER expression of the dual-hop
mixed RF/FSO system can be obtained as Eq. (34).

Acknowledgments
This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
No. 62071365), the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province (Grant
No. 2022GY-103), the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China
(Program No. 2020JM-710), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and
the Innovation Fund of Xidian University (Grant No. YJS2203).

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Xiaohui Song is currently pursuing her master’s degree at the School of Telecommunications
Engineering, Xidian University. Her main research interests include free space optical
communications.

Ping Wang received his PhD from Xidian University in 2005. Now, he is a professor at the State
Key Laboratory of Integrated Service Network, School of Telecommunications Engineering,
Xidian University (Xi’an, China). His main research interests include optical wireless commu-
nication and visible light communication.

Lingling Jiao: Biography is not available.

Yuanhao Nie is currently pursuing his master’s degree with the School of Telecommunications
Engineering, Xidian University. His main research interests include free space optical
communications.

Shizhong Gu is currently pursuing his master’s degree with the School of Telecommunications
Engineering, Xidian University. His main research interests include free space optical
communications.

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