[EEE/OSA/[APR International Conference on [nfonnatics, Electronics & Vision

Modeling and Performance Analysis of Free Space

Optical Communication System
Md. Tawabur Rahman

Shahid Iqbal

Department of EEE
Khulna University of Engineering &
Technology, Khulna, Bangladesh
Abstract-In

this

paper,

an

attempt

has

been

made

to

investigate the impact of free space transfer function taking

into effects of atmospheric turbulence, pointing errors and

path loss factor on the performance of free space optical
communication system. The performance of the proposed free

space optical communication system is studied by developing a

MATLAB simulator using simulink in which free s pace is used
as a communication channel. Finally, we evaluated the Bit

Error Rate (BER) performance of the proposed system varying

with different system parameters such as distance, transmitter

power, path loss factor, atmospheric turbulence and received
signal

power.

The

BER

is

highly

degraded

on

severe

atmospheric turbulence condition ever for a short distance of

free space channel. The effect of path loss factor due to dense
fog is also severe on the BER even though the turbulence effect
and free space distance is short. The optimum transmitted
input power and receiver antenna radius at which the BER is
minimum, is strongly dependent on free space distance and
atmospheric parameters.

Keywords-free space optical communication, bit error rate

I.

Md. Monjurul Islam

Department of EEE
Mymensingh Engineering College
Mymensingh, Bangladesh

INTRODUCTION

Twenty first century is an era of "[nfonnation

technology". There is no doubt that infonnation technology
has had an exponential growth through the modem
telecommunication systems. But, in existing Microwave
communication bandwidth is limited as well as the number
of channel. There also required radio permits and the data
rate is comparatively lower. So, with highly developing
information technology through the telecommunication
system there must be an alternative. The only reasonable
alternative is free space optical (FSO) communication [1]. It
plays a vital role in the development of high quality and
high-speed telecommunication systems, as it offers
bandwidth of 105 times greater than the existing Microwave
communication. [t also provides high security, low cost, low
power and high rates due to unregulated bandwidth. FSO
communication is a method of transmitting information from
one place to another by sending light through the free space.
It is an exciting technology that establishes point- to- point
communication links through the atmosphere [2].
Optical communication has become popular nowadays in
fiber optic communication. Research is going on to use
Optical communication employing free space as
communication channel instead of fiber optic waveguide.
Because,

978-1-4673-1154-0112/$31.00 2012 IEEE

Department of CSE
Mymensingh Engineering College
Mymensingh, Bangladesh

light
using
Telecommunication
systems
propagation in atmosphere (free space) are less
costly than optical fiber.
They do not require radio permits and licenses like
microwave and radio-relay systems.
Unlike optical fiber cables, FSO equipment is
recoverable and moveable and requires less than a
fifth of the capital outlay of comparable ground
based fiber optic technologies [3].

In previous studies [4], performance of free space optical

communication is investigated without considering all
impairments related to atmospheric conditions and related
system parameters. But in this paper, the combined effect of
atmospheric turbulence, path loss factor, and pointing errors
are considered which fade the signal at the receiver and
deteriorate the link performance. The performance of the
proposed free space optical communication system is
analyzed by developing a MATLAB simulator named
simulink in which free space is used as a communication
channel. Finally, BER perfonnance of the proposed system
is evaluated varying with different system parameters such
as distance, transmitter power, path loss factor, atmospheric
turbulence and received signal power. The BER has highly
degraded on severe atmospheric turbulence condition ever
for a short distance of free space channel. The effect of path
loss factor due to dense fog is also severe on the BER even
though the turbulence effect and free space distance is short.
The optimum transmitted input power and receiver antenna
radius at which the BER is minimum, is strongly dependent
on free space distance and atmospheric parameters.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. [n section
II, Block diagram of FSO link, the atmospheric turbulence,
pointing error and path loss factor are described. [n Section
III, the newly proposed model is presented. The
perfonnance analysis and simulation results are shown In
Section IV. The paper has been concluded in Section V.
[I.

SYSTEM ARCH[TECTURE

A. FSO Link
A block diagram of an FSO communication link is
presented in Fig. 1. The transmitter modulates data on to the
instantaneous Intensity of an optical beam .[n this paper, we
consider intensity Modulated direct detection channels using

ICIEV 2012

[EEE/OSA/[APR International Conference on [nfonnatics, E[ectronics & Vision

On/Off Keying (OOK) modulation, which is widely
employed in practical systems. The received photo current
signal is related to the incident optical power by the detector
responsivity r. [t is assumed that the receiver integrates the
photo current for each bit period and removes any constant
bias due to background illumination. The received signal Y
suffers from a fluctuation in signal intensity due to
atmospheric turbulence and misalignment, as well as
additive noise, and can be well modeled as [5]

Y=HrX+N

(1)

(5)

The log-normal distribution can not characterize

scintillation effects in strong turbulence regimes [7], [[ 0].
In a recent approach to FSO channel modeling [6]-[7] a
Gamma-Gamma distribution was used to model
atmospheric fading. In this case, the pdf of

Ha is given as

a;fJJ_1 k (2Jaru
)
a-fJ
fJ1a

Where, X is the transmitted intensity, H is the channel state,

Y is the resulting electrical signal, and N is signal
independent additive white Gaussian noise with

attenuation of the propagation channel. In our model, H

where

spread and pointing errors H p , and atmospheric turbulence

kind, and liP and 1/a are the variances of the small and
large scale eddies, respectively [7].
For Gaussian beam intensity,

variance o' . The channel state H models the random

arises due to three factors: path loss factor HI' geometric

(Ha) = 2(afJ)(a+ PJ / (Ha) (

Ha
r( )rCfi)

()

ka-fJ (-) is the modified Bessel function of the second

Ha [4]. The channel state can be formulated as

(7)
(2)
Here,

HI is deterministic, and H p and Ha are random

with distributions.
B.

Atmospheric
Turbulence)

Where,

PR Received power
W beam width
=

Now, The Received power is [[ []

Statistical

Models

(Atmospheric

Many statistical models for the intensity fluctuation

through FSO channels have been proposed over the last two
decades [6]-[8]. For weak turbulence, the intensity
fluctuation probability density function (pdf) is modeled as a
log-normal distribution, which has been validated through
experimental measurements [1], [7], [9]. The log-amplitude
of the optical Intensity has a Gaussian pdf with log-

(8)

C. Path loss/actor
The attenuation of laser power through the atmosphere is
described by the exponential Beers-Lambert Law as

amplitude variance o' given by

HI =
(3)

O'l

0'

0'

11

1.23c K6 Z6

212

= exp(-O'Z)

(9)

HI is the loss factor over a propagation path of

Laser &
Modulator

(J

is the

Photodiode
& De-modulator

(lJ--1

(4)

can be measured directly from atmospheric parameters.

The intensity distribution is given by

P(O)

length Z, P(Z) is the laser power at distance Z, and

attenuation coefficient [2].

is the Rytov variance defined as [6], [14]

Where

P(Z)
--

Telescope
Figure 1. Block diagram of a FSO link

ICIEV 2012

Receiver

IEEE/OSA/IAPR International Conference on Infonnatics, Electronics & Vision

D.

Pointing error

In line-of-sight FSO communication links, pointing

accuracy is an important issue in determining link
performance and reliability. However, wind loads and
thermal expansions result in random building sways, which,
in tum, cause pointing errors and signal fading at the
receiver [4].

Combining (1\) and (13), the probability distribution of

Hp can be expressed as

f p ( Hp) -LH
H
ao y2

y2_1

O<H
<ao (14)
P -

Where Wz I 2a" is the ratio between the equivalent beam

eq

(10)

radius at the receiver and the pointing error displacement

standard deviation at the receiver.
E.

Where

ao

=
=

W2

Zeq

Here,

ao

WZeq is

(II)

fV
W2 .JJier ( )2
2V exp(_V )

Where

equivalent

beam

width.

We

0, and

consider

independent identical Gaussian distributions for the

elevation and the horizontal displacement (sway), as was
done in previous work. The radial displacement r at the
receiver is modeled by a Rayleigh distribution

R
R2
fll(R) -2 exp(--2 )' R>O
2as
as
=

Where

H,HpHa can be

expressed as

(12)

is the fraction of the collected power at R

the

Channel Statistical Model

The probability distribution of

(J1i;,) 1(2Wz ) , and

[erf(V)]2
=

f(H; Wz)

the beam width

is a family of pdfs parameterized by

Wz, and

fH / H

probability given a turbulence state

is the conditional

Ha' Recall that Hi is

deterministic and acts as a scaling factor. The resulting

conditional distribution can be expressed

(16)

(13)

as2 is the jitter variance at the receiver.

Channel

Figure 2. Simulation model of free space optical communication system using simulink

213

ICIEV 2012

IEEE/OSA/IAPR International Conference on Infonnatics, Electronics & Vision

D.

Substituting (13) into (12) gives

Simplifying

and

f1

defining

2(j (1 + 2 y2)JrR 2

results in

Putting the value ofH

I'

Hp and Ha in (18) we get our

Model of Receiver

A hard-limiter for levels 0 and 1 is included in the

input of receiver. This limiter provides decreasing noise
influence to the common infonnation data stream and helps
in correct identifying user data (Fig. 5). Existence of
infonnation bit I is provided by individual correlator for
every user at the moment of arriving of his specific
signature code word. Information bit 0 is considered in
other different cases. The properties of optical orthogonal
codes OOC guarantee correct extracting of information
data sequence for every user.
There is a mechanism for automatic detection activity for
any user in the simulation model of the optical
communication system. This is done by using automatic
tracking of common detected level after all user correlators
[12].

required equation i.e. the free space transfer function.

III.

PROPOSED MODEL

A.
Simulation
model
Communication system

of

free

space

optical

The simulation model of FSO communication system is

shown on Fig. 2. The simulation model is done in graphical
application Simulink of Matlab program environment. The
experiment is made assuming the following parameters:
fixed discrete step with duration 100 [ps], the duration of
one chip is defined by 10 times discretes Tc=1 [ns];
considering the chosen code length N=31 one information
bit is defmed as T=31 [ns] [12].
B.

Model of generating random data sequence and

assigning different code
The transmitter of simulation model is shown on Fig.
3(a), and it includes random information data 100 bits
sequence for every user (Bernoulli generator). This
generator switches on in arbitrary time moment which is
different for every user. This represents asynchronous part
of the simulation experiment. The generated data sequence
for every user is coded by signature code word which is
specific for different users in cases when information bit 1 is
transmitted which is shown in Fig. 3(b). The information
signal formed for every user is summed and send through
free space channel [12].
C.

t------. c::J
Bernoulli Binary
Bernoulli generator

(a)

S?c------- I

Hadamard
Code Generator

CONV

j--1----I
I(O

Hadamard
Code Generator

(b)
Figure 3. (a) Models of generating random data sequence (b)
coding data sequence by signature code word for first user

Simulink model of{ree space channel

First, we have computed Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of

composite data signal to convert it into frequency domain.
Then the composite FFT signal is multiplied with the
coefficient of our proposed free space transfer function
.Finally, Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) is computed
on the product data to get the composite data in time
domain. This is illustrated in Fig. 4.

214

Figure 4. Simulink model offree space channel

ICIEV 2012

t1

IEEE/OSA/IAPR International Conference on Infonnatics, Electronics & Vision

MinMax8

6-----+

rlrq..--s--Saturation

ma,

t--+---.-----+-
Interval Test
Dynamic

COlTelation
MinMax2

Constant

Code Generator

'01

Rate Transition2

MinMax1
Saturation1

f- --I-------l.--Rat,I
MloMa,3

,f'-"-3

--------: fk

L-__-+lr---I---_+(2)
---,

Interval Test
Dynamic1

Code Generator1

Constant1

Figure 5. Model of Receiver

IV.

PERFORMANCE ANAL YSIS AND SIMULATION RESULT

A. Bit stream transmission (without assigning code)

Input bit pattern

As the effect of the free space channel is gradually

increasing with increasing distance, so the received output is
gradually distorted. But with increasing distance if we
increase the power, the received output can be maintained
constant(i.e. above threshold level) within a certain distance.
This result is shown in Fig. 10.
Then we observed the effect of the free space channel on
the output at the receiver with increasing distance for
constant transmitter power. We have done this for various
transmitter power (such as 100mW, 150mW, 200mW). This
result is shown in Fig. I I. From this observation we can
conclude that the performance will be satisfactory in this
free space channel (where all the effects i.e. atmospheric
turbulence, pointing error, path loss are included) between
100m to 500m.That is why, We analyze the performance of
our proposed free space optical communication system
model between this range.

215

Magnitude

We have sent the bit stream to check the impact of the

free space channel on this transmitted bit stream.
From Fig. 9 we can see that the voltage of output bit stream
is reduced to 0.73 volt from 1 volt and it will be distorted
more as the distance is increased.

Time

Figure 6. The transmitted bit stream

ICIEV 2012

[EEE/OSA/[APR International Conference on [nfonnatics, E[ectronics & Vision

B. BER

Fig. [2 illustrates the Plot of BER with respect to

increasing distance. [t shows that, with the increasing
length, the BER is increasing due to the increase of path loss
and atmospheric turbulence with distance. Here we vary the
length from 100m to 500m and the corresponding BER is
plotted. Here we took the Transmitted power of 300mW.
For getting lesser BER i.e. to improve the system
performance we have to increase the transmitted power. Fig.
13 shows the Plot of BER with respect to increasing
transmitted power. [t shows that, with the increasing
transmitted power, the BER is decreasing. Here we vary the
transmitted power from 200mW to IW.

70
60
50
40
30
20

1.8

Frequency

1600

Figure 7. The transmitted signal in frequency domain

"
E

(II

transfer function

0
Q.

0.9

BOO

600

400

VI

200

f-

'5
, 0.5

1000

0.6

1200

0.7

1400

0.8

"

Characteristics

0.4

0.2

0.4

/
/
/
./
/'
0.6

O.B

1.2

1.4

1.6

Distance(Km)

0.3

0.2

Figure 10. Plot of Transmitter power Vs Distance for maintaining constant

output at the receiver considering the free space channel (where all the
eflects i.e. atmospheric turbulence,pointing error,path loss are included)

0.1

O L-____-L__-L__-L______
o
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
10
frequency
X 10

Figure 8. The Transfer function in frequency domain

recei\.d bit pattern for OAkm

O.s .-----------.___--___.

0.9

1------._-

O}

1-------+"<+--------------------

05

1--------+-++------------------

OJ

I-------'\----------------

0.8
0.6

0.7

5"

0.6

,
a 0.4

0.5

:3 0.4

U.l

0.1

c
'"
'"

E 0.3

1------\:1-----+--\-\,---
I--------t-t-\------------------

I------------'Io:-l--'k:--------------

...... pt.150mW
_pt200mW

I---------------"tc-'=....--"r--,------ ----0.2

0.2

-+-ptl00mW

0.4

0.6

0.8

DistanceiKmj

1.4

1.6

0.1
O ------------------------
SOO

200

400

600

time

1000

1200

Figure 11. Plot of Output at the receiver Vs distance maintaining constant

transmitter power considering the free space channel (where all the effects
i. e. atmospheric turbulence,pointing error,path loss are included)

Figure 9. The received bit stream after propagating through free space

216

ICIEV 2012

IEEE/OSA/IAPR International Conference on Infonnatics, Electronics & Vision

Figure14 explains the performance of our proposed system
with respect to path loss factor .As we described previously
path loss factor (H

I) is a ratio of received power at distance

Z, P(Z) to the transmitted power, P(O) i.e.

HI

10.' '-------'--'---'
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500

distance(m)

P(Z)

P(O)

Here we can see that if the path loss factor increases the
BER decrease. This can be explained as follows:
if we increase the distance, the received power P(z) will
decrease and path loss factor also decreases so BER will
increase. Similarly, if we decrease the distance, the received
power P(z) will increase and path loss factor also increases,
so BER will decrease.

10-3-------

Figure 12. Plot of BER with respect to Distance

In the previous figure we have described that,if we increase the transmitted
power the BER will decrease and we can observe the improvement here.
We consider the constant length of 300m.

10-_'c5

---:-

--

--:-, 'c_5

--

----:

--

--::
2 _'o5

--

----:

--

Recei\A3d Signal intenSity

-73_5
107

-x

Figure 15. Plot of BER with respect to Received signal power intensity

10 5 '------'--------'---.J
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
Transmitted power(W)

Figure

13.

Plot of Bit Error Rate (BER) with respect to

Transmitted power

0.05 0.1

0.15 0.2

0.25 0.3

0.35 0.4

path loss factor(hl)

Figure 14. Plot of BER with respect to Path loss factor

217

The above Fig. 15. shows the vanatIOn of BER with

respect to received signal power intensity. Here we can see
that if the received signal power intensity increases the BER
decreases and vice versa. The received signal power
intensity is also a measure of atmospheric turbulence. If the
turbulence decreases the received signal power intensity
increases, so lower BER occurs and if the turbulence effect
increases the received signal power intensity decreases,
hence higher BER occurs. This effect is shown in Fig. 16.

10
5 '--------'-------:--'
----'-------:
10-----:'
11
atmospheric turbulence

10-8

Figure 16. Plot of BER with respect to Atmospheric turbulence effect.

ICIEV 2012

IEEE/OSA/IAPR International Conference on Infonnatics, Electronics & Vision

Since FSO link requires precise pomtmg, the effect of
pointing errors on link performance is a vital issue. In Fig.
17. we can see the relation between the pointing errors and
beam radius. From the figure we can see that if the beam
radius is increased pointing error is reduced as precise
pointing can be obtained easily. In our proposed model we
have taken the effect of pointing error as a constant value in
our free space transfer function, because we have taken the
beam radius constant throughout the free space distance.
0.38 ,---------__.

effect of atmospheric turbulence was also observed at

maximum turbulence condition the BER is also
approximately 10-32. Here we have taken the effect of
pointing error as a constant value in our free space transfer
function, because we have taken the beam radius constant
throughout the free space distance.
REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

0.36
0.34

0.32

[3]

0.28

[4]

0.24

[5]

0.2

[6]

0.3

"0 0.26
"-

0.22

0.18 L---------1
0.2
0.22
0.24
0.26
0.28
0.3
0.32
beam radius(m)

[7]

Figure 17. Plot of pointing error (hp) with respect to beam radius.
[8]

V.

CONCLUSION

In this paper the combined impact of atmospheric

turbulence, path loss factor and pointing error on the
performance of free space optical communication system is
analyzed. A simulation model of free space communication
system is developed in Matlab using simulink. Bernoulli
generator is used for generating random data sequence for
every user and the data of individual user is coded with
Hadamard code before transmission through the free space
channel. At the receiving end the direct detection technique
is used. Then the BER is evaluated by varying the several
parameters such as distance, transmitter power, path loss
factor, received signal intensity and atmospheric turbulence.
At first, from observing the plot of distance Vs output
magnitude curve shown in Fig. 1I. for single bit
transmission through the free space channel we have
decided to implement our proposed model for the
communication between 100m t0500m range, as the output
magnitude has been drastically reduced beyond 500m.Then
we have evaluated the BER of our proposed model with
respect to distance and plotted it in a semilog scale. For
100m distance the BER was approximately 10-385 for a
constant transmitter power of 0.35watt and receiver antenna
radius of 1m. But if we increase the transmitter power upto
1 watt the BER decreases to approximately to 10-5. After
that we have determined the BER performance of proposed
system with respect to path loss factor. When the path loss
factor is maximum the BER is almost approximately 10-3
This path loss factor is severe in presence of dense fog. The

218

[9]
[10]

[11]
[12]

X. Zhuand and 1.Kahn, "Free space optical communication through

atmospheric turbulence channels," IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. 50,
no. 8,pp. 1293-1300,Aug. 2002.
V. Jyoti and R. S. Kaler,Department of Electronics & Communication
Engineering. Thapar University, Punjab, India "Performance analysis
of one-dimensional and two-dimensional codes in optical Code
division multiple access system ".
M. A. Naboulsi, H. Sizun, and F. de Fornel, "Fog attenuation
prediction for optical and infrared waves," Opt. Eng., vol. 43, no. 2,
pp. 319-329,Feb. 2004.
A. Ahmed and S. Hranilovic, Member, "Outage Capacity
Optimization for Free-Space Optical Links With Pointing Errors,"
IEEE Journal of light wave technology, vol. 25,no. 7,July 2007.
X. Zhu and 1. M. Kahn," Performance bounds for coded free-space
Optical communications through atmospheric turbulence," IEEE
Trans. Commun., vol. 51,no. 8,pp. 1233-1239,Aug. 2003.
L. C. Andrews, R. L. Phillips, C. Y. Hopen, and M. A. Al-Habash,
"Theory of optical scintillation," J. Opt. Soc. Amer. A, Opt. Image
Sci., vol. 16, no.6, pp. 1417-1429,Jun 1999.
M. A. Al-Habash, L. C. Andrews, and R. L. Philips, "Mathematical
model for the irradiance probability density function of a laser
propagating through turbulent media," Opt. Eng., vol. 40, no. 8, pp.
1554-1562,Aug. 2001
R. .I. Hill and R. G . Frehlich, " Probability distribution of irradiance
for the on set of strong scintillation," J. Opt. Soc. Amer. A, Opt.
Image Sci., vol. 14,no. 7,pp. 1530-1540,Jul. 1997.
S. Karp, R. Gagliardi, S. Moran, and L. Stotts, Optical Channels.
New York : Plenum, 1988.
S. M. Flatte, C. Bracher, and G. Y. Wang, "Probability density
functions Of irradiance for waves in atmospheric turbulence
calculated by numerical simulations," J. Opt. Soc. Amer. A , Opt.
Image Sci., vol. 11,no.7,pp.2080-2092,Jul. 1994.
Optical Communications Components and systems, JH Franz &VK
Jain.
] Aleksander Milev and Chavdar Minchev "A Simulation Model of an
Optical Communication CDMA System," International Conference
on Computer Systems and Technologies Compo Sys. Tech. '2007.

[13]

[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]

[18]
[19]

M.S.Borella, .l.P. .Iue,D.Banerjee, B. Ramamurthy, and B.Mukherjee,

"Optical Components for
WDM
Lightwave
Networks," in
Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 85,pp. 1274 - 1307,August 1997.
I. Rubin, "Message Delays in FDMA and TDMA ch annels,"
IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 27,no. 5,May 1979.
S. Theodore and R. Rappapo, "Wireless Communications: Principles
and Practice," Second edition,Prentice Hall,2007.
www.umtsworld.comltechnology/cdmabasics.htm.
R. Paul, Prucnal, and A. M. Santoro, "Spread Spectrum Fiber-optic
Local Area Network Using Optical Processing," Journal of Lightwave
Technology, vol. 4,no. 5,May 1986.
The Succsssful development process with MATLAB Simulink in the
framework of ESA's ATV project.
Model Based Design Accelerates the Development of Mechanical
Locomotive Controls, SAE 2010 Commercial Vehicle Engineering
Congress, October 2010, Chicago, IL, USA, Session: Model Based
Design & Embedded Software Development (Part 1 of 2), Paper
2010-01-1999.

ICIEV 2012