Spatial diversity for FSO communication systems over atmospheric turbulence channels

This paper investigates the bit error rate (BER) performance of spatial diversity free-space optical (FSO) communication systems using on-off keying modulation. The study considers correlated log-normal FSO channels as well as path losses due to weather effects using intensity modulation and direct detection schemes. An approximated moment generating functions (MGF) for the joint probability density function of correlated log-normal channels are considered. Using MGF approximation, BER expressions for repetition codes (RCs) and orthogonal space time block codes (OSTBCs) in correlated lognormal channels are derived. Results show that RCs outperform OSTBCs in correlated channel conditions. In addition, the effect of different weather conditions (e.g., haze, rain and fog) on the BER performance of the FSO links are studied. Monte Carlo simulation results are further provided to demonstrate the validity of the proposed mathematical analysis.