J. Opt. Commun.

2017; aop

Gaurav Soni*

A Performance Analysis of Free-Space Optical Link

at 1,550 nm, 850 nm, 650 nm and 532 nm Optical
Wavelengths
DOI 10.1515/joc-2016-0118
Received August 25, 2016; accepted December 1, 2016
Abstract: Free Space Optics (FSO) communication techni-
que is a unique method for the communication between
optical transmitter and optical receiver using a free space
as a medium. The advantages of FSO over other wireless
communication techniques is its low power, high security,
low cost infrastructure, high data rates and unlicensed
spectrum. There are many atmospheric disturbances like
rain, fog, water molecules particles which degrade the
performance of the FSO Link. In this paper, the FSO Link
is optimized at different optical wavelengths of 1550 nm,
850 nm, 650 nm and 532 nm keeping into consideration the
various atmospheric challenges and weather conditions.
The performance of the proposed FSO link is evaluated in
terms of BER and Quality factor. Simulation results for the
proposed FSO link achieve maximum link range of 1000 m
at 1550 nm. The achieved values of Bit Error Rate (BER) and
Quality Factor (Q) for FSO link at 1550 nm are 10e-9 and
5.58 respectively.
Keywords: free-space optics (FSO), optics channel, rain
attenuation, rain rates, visible light communication
1 Introduction
Free-Space Optics (FSO) is accepted communication tech-
nique which is used now-a-days. It is having advantages
over the other fiber optics like high data rates, no need of
license, low power consumption, no digging, and so on.
FSO generally operates at visible and infrared spectrum,
i. e. the region of 4001,550 nm [1]. FSO is basically a
communication between transmitter and receiver stations
and the medium used is free space or vacuum. The atmo-
spheric conditions such as rain, fog, snow, and so on
affect the communication system a lot. Due to the attenua-
tion produced by these conditions, FSO link starts to
degrade its quality. This paper also optimized these effects
*Corresponding author: Gaurav Soni, Department of Electronics &
Communication Engineering, Amritsar College of Engineering &
Technology, Amritsar, India, E-mail: gaurav.ece@acetedu.in
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1270-9426
on the link through the choice of wavelength selection that
will present which wavelength having minimum attenua-
tion on the transmitted signal [2]. Different-different mod-
ulations having different-different results with different-
different wavelengths [3]. Red laser and green laser both
are used for short-range communication purposes but
850 nm and 1,550 nm infrared region laser is used for
short and long distance purposes. Due to more advantages
over the visible range lasers like more eye safety, less
attenuation, longer distance communication of 1,550 nm
wavelength, it is more preferred over the other lasers
which are lower in wavelength. With an advantage like
low cost factor, red laser can be used in short distance
communication purposes. And Red Lasers also have dis-
advantages like dangerous for the eye, having more
attenuation, unregulated worldwide and short distance
communication. And also have disadvantages like danger-
ous for the eye, having more attenuation, unregulated
worldwide and short distance communication. The optimi-
zation of 1,550 nm, 850 nm, 650 nm and 532 nm wave-
lengths is done through varying parameters like
transmitter power, beam divergence angle, modulation
schemes, responsivity, and so on [2]. The paper is orga-
nized as follows: Sections 2 and 3 contain the system
description, Section 4 discusses the designing of FSO com-
munication system in optisystem, Section 5 discusses the
results of the designed system and finally, Section 6 sum-
marizes and concludes this paper.
2 System description
The system consists of transmitter part, the channel and
the receiver part. In FSO communication system the
original information is firstly converted into electrical
signals through transducer or encoding schemes then
pass the signal to the channel with the help of light
source, i. e. laser. After passing through the medium,
signal is received by the receiver. Receiver can be used
APD, PN, PIN, and so on. On both the sides of the
transmitter and receiver some high mounted antennas
are situated through which the proper communication

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2 G. Soni: Performance Analysis of FSO Link
Modulating FSO
PRBS Modulator Link
laser
Carrier
Wave
Front end
amplifier
Photo-
- diode
Low pass
filter
Figure 1: Block diagram of free space optics [5].
occurs. In an optisystem software, Wavelengths for the
communication used are 532 nm, 650 nm, 850 nm and
1,550 nm which shows their attenuation level that which
wavelength is more preferable for the communication
purposes. So light source is a most important factor in
FSO communication systems. Mostly LED and LASER
sources are used for optical systems. The main reason
to use the laser diode than led is lasers are monochro-
matic, coherent and has high radiance which makes to it
suitable for longer distance transmission of data. Laser
also travels much further than led lights. Owing to these
factors a continuous wave laser is mostly used in FSO
Systems [4] (Figure 1).
In this paper, the effect of rain on the wavelengths of
FSO link is determined by varying different-different
parameters of the link.
3 Atmospheric effects on FSO
The main challenging factors of the FSO are absorp-
tion, scattering, turbulence, and scintillations. Rain,
fog, snow, dust, and so on by which at the receiver,
received signal degrade its quality. Due to rain drops
there is a non-selective scattering occurs. The scatter-
ing is called non-selective because there is no
dependence of the attenuation coefficient on laser
wavelength [4]. In general, weather and installation
are the key factors that could possibly reduce visibility
and also impair the FSO performance. This work is
presented by considering these atmospheric conditions
mainly the rain weather condition and the results are
evaluated on that basis on the BER(Bit error rate) ana-
lyzer. The transmitted and received powers are also
evaluated on optical power meter and optical power
spectrum by using the formulas. The quality factor also
calculated using the formula with BER. The beam
divergence angle and consideration of the attenuation
also calculated with the formulas.
4 Simulation work in optisystem
For designing of FSO link a simulation software is used
in optisystem 7.0. In which FSO link is divided into three
parts, the transmitter, channel which is free space and
the receiver. In transmitter power of the laser, wave-
length of the laser and the conversion process of the
pseudo random bit sequence generator into electrical
signals by using the encoding schemes are selected.
Then the modulation process is also occurred in trans-
mitter side by selecting a suitable modulation techni-
que. In the channel case by calculating the attenuation
on the link using formula is considered, then transmitter
and receiver aperture diameters, range, beam diver-
gence angle, etc. also selected according to the require-
ment. At the last the receiver is selected it may be PN,
PIN or APD receiver, its responsivity is also selected
according to the requirement. The BER analyzer, optical
power meter and optical power spectrum are used for
the analyzing purposes. Figure 2 shows the optimized
link at 1,550 nm wavelength, Figure 3 shows the opti-
mized link at 850 nm wavelength, Figure 4 shows the
optimized link at 650 nm wavelength and Figure 5
shows the optimized link at 532 nm wavelength with
using NRZ(Non-return-to-zero) modulation and MZM
(Mach-Zehnder Modulator) modulator.
4.1 Optimized FSO link at 1,550 nm
wavelength
In the Figure 2 the FSO link at the wavelength of 1,550 nm is
achieved at the power of 5 mW, Maximum range up to 1 km
with the tolerable attenuation of 18 dB/Km and beam diver-
gence angle of 1.7 mrad. The laser used is continuous wave
laser. Modulation used is NRZ with MZM Modulator.
Transmitter and receiver aperture diameters are taken as
5 cm and 30 cm for this link. At the receiver side APD having
responsivity of 1 A/W and loss is occurred of 0.01 dB.
4.2 Optimized link at 850 nm wavelength
The designing of the 850 nm wavelength FSO link shown
in Figure 3 is almost same like a 1,550 nm only change in
the beam divergence angle that is 1.65 mrad in this link,
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 G. Soni: Performance Analysis of FSO Link 3

Figure 2: Optimized 1,550 nm FSO link.

Figure 3: Optimized 850 nm FSO link.

responsivity is taken as 0.9 A/W and loss is occurred of this link, responsivity is taken as 0.8 A/W and loss is
0.02 dB at the receiver side. occurred of 3 dB at the receiver side.

4.3 Optimized FSO link at 650 nm 4.4 Optimized FSO link at 532 nm
wavelength wavelength

The designing of the 650 nm wavelength FSO link shown The designing of the 532 nm wavelength FSO link shown
in Figure 4 is also almost same like a 1,550 nm only in Figure 5 is also almost same like a 1,550 nm only
change in the beam divergence angle that is 1.2 mrad in change in the beam divergence angle that is 0.75 mrad

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4 G. Soni: Performance Analysis of FSO Link

Figure 4: Optimized 650 nm FSO link.

Figure 5: Optimized 532 nm wavelength FSO link.

in this link, responsivity is taken as 0.7 A/W and loss is Measured powder density during the rain
Loss =
occurred of 7 dB at the receiver side (Table 1). Measured power density after the rain is over
To calculate the BER and quality factor the below formu- (2)
las used as [6]
  In decibles, loss (dB) = 10 loge (Loss)
1 Q
BER = erfc p (1) By definition, power density is the power per
2 2 unit area which is usually expressed in terms of
where Q is quality factor and erfc denotes the complemen- W/cm2.
tary error function. And to calculate the BER is given by
 
The loss can be calculated using eq. [7]. Power Density = Power W=Area cm2 (3)

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 G. Soni: Performance Analysis of FSO Link 5

Table 1: Simulation parameters for 1,550 nm, 850 nm, 650 nm and factor of 18 dB/km is fixed and chosen for simulation of
532 nm wavelengths. the designed link at all selected wavelengths.

Parameters Values

Laser CW
5 Results and discussion
Wavelength , nm, nm,
nm and nm After designing of the FSO link at different different wave-
Transmitted power mW lengths, the different different results are also occurred
Modulation NRZ which are shown in the tabular form in Table 2.
Modulator MZM
Link range km
Attenuation dB/km Table 2: Performance analysis of the link at 1,550 nm, 850 nm, 650
Transmitter aperture diameter cm nm and 532 nm wavelengths.
Receiver aperture diameter cm

Wavelength (nm) BER Q-factor Eye height

, .e . .e
Power (W) = Power Received in optical systems. As for the .e . .e
concern of beam divergence angle calculation, the beam .e . .e
.e . .e
divergence, , is given by
 
Df Di
degree = 2 arctan (4)
l

where Df, Di are the beam diameters at the final and 5.1 Results at 1,550 nm wavelength
initial stages of the laser and l is the distance between
the these transmitter and receiver sources. Figure 6 shows the minimum BER of 8.84227e009 and Q
To calculate the beam divergence angle of the laser Factor is 5.58872 of the FSO link. The red line shows the
beam in radians. quality of the signal with respect to the time period that
means in which time which quality has reached. The
value of BER and Q-factor shows the attenuation which
radians = degrees rad (5)
180 are in permissible limits. The permissible limits are that
On the other side, the FSO Link range is 1 km, The BER should be 109 and Q is 5.5 respectively that we have
mathematical calculations and the results are based on achieved with 1,550 nm wavelength.
link range of 1000 meters under rain conditions by
taking CW laser at transmitter side and (LDR) light-
dependent resistor (LDR) at the receiver side. So to
compare the results using the optisystem, link range
of 1000 meters is considered for the designing of the
proposed FSO link. The attenuation of 18 dB/km which
is considered in software is calculated by rain-specific
attenuation which is represented by power law; refer to
eq. (6) [8].

A = kR (6)

where R is the rain rate in mm/hr, k and are power law

parameters. According to Carbonneau model, k is taken
1.076 and is 0.67 and R is taken 2.716 mm/min. which is
calculated in my experimental work which gives the
32 dB/km attenuation. But the FSO link designed using
optisystem achieved at the satisfactory link performance
at maximum attenuation of 18 dB/km. So the attenuation Figure 6: BER of 1,550 nm link.

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6 G. Soni: Performance Analysis of FSO Link
Figure 7: Eye diagram of 1,550 nm link.
Eye diagram in Figure 7 shows that the signal has been
received with some errors. It has an eye opening of
2.10096e005.
Figure 8 shows the transmitted optical power and its
spectrum with the wavelength of the optimized link for
length 1,000 m. Optical power transmitted is 2.461e3 W
calculated by the power meter. The spectrum of the
transmitted power in Figure 8 also shows at the peak
wavelength of 1,550 nm. The loss of optical power at
Figure 8: Transmitted optical power for link length 1,000 m.
Figure 9: Received optical power for link length 1,000 m.
receiver end can be analyzed by using the spectrum
analyzer at the receiver end. Figure 9 shows the received
optical power of the optimized link for length 1,000 m.
Optical power received is 1.209e6 W calculated by the
power meter. The spectrum of the received power in
Figure 9 shows at the peak wavelength of 1,550 nm. The
result shows that the optical power reduces to a great
extent after traveling a distance of 1,000 m.
Results of the other wavelengths also look like same as
1,550 nm wavelength results. But changes only according
to the results shown in Table 2 which shows that at the
wavelength of 850 nm the BER is 2.17116e008, Q-Factor is
5.43312, eye height/Eye opening is 1.93113e005, optical
power transmitted is 2.461e3 W and optical power received
is 1.209e6 W whereas in case of 650 nm wavelength results
are occurred as BER is 4.38701e007, Q-Factor is 4.87228,
eye opening 1.36679e005, optical transmitted power is
2.461e3 W and optical received power is 1.125e6 W and
in case of 532 nm BER is 3.81266e006, Q-Factor is 4.4291,
eye opening is 9.72373e006, optical power transmitted is
2.461e3 W and optical power received is 1.094e6 W.
6 Conclusion
In this paper, the work of designing and optimization of
FSO link is done in the optisystem simulation software.
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The FSO link is designed at different wavelengths of
1,550 nm, 850 nm, 650 nm and 532 nm wavelengths.
From all of the work it can be concluded that 1,550 nm
having BER of 10-9, 850 nm having 10-8, 650 nm having
10-7 and 532 nm having 10-6, which shows that 1,550 nm
wavelength is better from all of the other wavelengths,
further 850 nm is better from 650 nm and 532 nm, and
650 nm is even better from 532 nm because it achieved
satisfactory link performance at very low attenuation/BER
at the receiver side. So higher wavelength like 1550 nm is
a better choice for the FSO link Design.
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