FSO transmission of halftoned image over DGG
turbulence channel
Stefan Pani, Hranislav Miloevi
Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics
Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia
Emails: stefanpnc@yahoo.com mhrane@gmail.com
Vera Petrovi
The School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of
Applied Studies
Belgrade, Serbia
Email: vera.petrovic@viser.edu.rs
AbstractIn this paper we will analyze free space optics
(FSO) transmission of halftoned image over Double Generalized
Gamma (DGG) turbulence channel. First, we will present
halftoning method, and algorithm for FSO transmission
simulation. Further, we will observe standard performance
criterions of reconstruceted image, such are Bit Error Rate
(BER) and Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) versus
properties of observed FSO link: link distance, shaping and
severity parameters of irradiance and Rytov variance. Presented
analysis is very general and encompasses a large number of FSO
transmission scenarios, since Double Gamma-Gamma turbulence
channel model as general turbulence channel model can be
reduced to various turbulence channel models as it special cases.
Keywords Free-space optical communication, Double
Generalized Gamma Channel, Image processing, Halftone image.
I. INTRODUCTION
M ultimedia content is very present in everyday
communication, since distribution of multimedia content
such as newspapers and books and is very present in all forms
of digital communication. Some of produced images are
produced over the halftoning and they contain only two colors,
black and white. When this halftone image is viewed from a
certain distance, it appears as the original image [1]. Halftoning
methods developed in past years can be categorized into
ordered dithering [2], error diffusion [3], [4], dot diffusion [5],
[6] and direct binary search [7], [8].
Usage of high-data-rate free-space optical (FSO)
transmission systems has grown recently, since FSO
transmission obtains many advantages over radio frequency
(RF) transmission. Some of the advantages are: narrow beam
of emission of power, resistance to EMI interference, for
Frenzel zone is not neccessary, full duplex transmission is
enabled, practical realization is simple, and transmission is
license-free. Main advantages of FSO transmission are caused
Bojan Prlinevi
Higher Technical Professional School in Zvecan
Zvecan, Serbia
Email: prlincevic@hotmail.com
Olga Taseiko
Institute of Computational Technologies of SB RAS
Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Email: taseiko@gmail.com
by short dimension of wavelengths used for optical
transmission. However, FSO transmission manifests some
undesired characteristics that occur during transmission, such
are: acquisition and pointing are subjected to difficulties,
various harmful effects arise due to influence of atmospheric
factors (i.e. haze, fog, rain, Sun, turbulence). Major
performance impairment in FSO links, which degrades the link
performance is atmospheric turbulence-induced fading [9].
Time varying spatial fluctuations of the optical beam appear as
an outcome of atmosphere refractive index variations. These
variations are caused by atmospheric turbulence, and are
displayed as irradiance fluctuations of the received signals.
Such phenomena is known as FSO fading or scintillation.
Mixed RF/FSO cooperative systems were observed in [20-21].
Various attempts have been made in order to obtain for
accurate mathematical and numerical modeling of FSO
propagation. Double Weibull distribution turbulence model is
mostly used for modeling of scintillation of signal with
different intensities of turbulences. This model fits turbulence
measurements within systems with large aperture on the
receiving side [10]. Log-Normal distribution turbulence model
[11] on the other hand, corresponds to the regimes of weak
atmospheric turbulence [3], [12]. Best fit for turbulence
scenarios that occurs in terrestrial communication over sparsely
populated areas and suburbs is Ricean turbulence model[13].
Gamma-Gamma turbulence model is simplified model of
scintillation that can be often used for various propagation
scenarious [14]. Moreover, general turbulence distribution
model Double Generalized Gamma (DGG) turbulence model,
was recently proposed [13], [15]. This model is very general
since it encompasses many existing turbulence channel models
as its special cases, because it provides an excellent fit to the
measured magnitudes of plane and spherical FSO waves. By
setting the predefined values to the DGG model parameters,
this model is transformed to other above mentioned turbulence
models.
In this we will analyze properties of FSO transmission of
halftoned image through DGG channel. The paper is composed
in the following way: section II describes halftoning method
and DGG FSO channel model. Based on simulation results and
performances analysis is carried out in section III. Section IV
presents conclusion of the paper. Main contribution of the
work is that it provides approach proposed for estimation of
boundary values of FSO link parameters, that are neccesary in
FSO link designing proccess for obtaining required values of
quality of service (QoS), when simmilar last-mile FSO
transmission scenarious of halftoned image are observed.
distributed random process with variance expressed as [17],
[18]:
sh2 = 2qg 2 FA RPmI
t f (5)
with constant q representing an electron charge. Parameters g
and R stand for the gain and responsivity, respectively, while
Pt denotes transmitted optical power. Parameter m denotes
modulation index, variable I represents accounted normalized
irradiance, while FA denotes the excess noise factor expressed
as [18]:

II. SYSTEM MODEL FA = k A g + (1 k A )(2 1 g ) (6)

Received FSO signal from the aperture plane can be

expressed as: with k A denoting the ionization factor.
Now, total noise variance could be expressed as the sum of
Er (t , r ) = us (t ) exp( j 2 f c t + (t )) exp[ (r ) + j (r )] (1) noise variances:

T
with r denoting the position vector on the receive aperture 2 = 2 + 2 = 4k B Fn f + 2qg 2 FA RPmI
t f (7)
plane and fc defining the optical carrier frequency. Part of the n Th sh
RL
expression us(t)exp(j(t)) stands for the complex envelope of
the modulation signal. Finally, in the exponent of the Information carrying part of signal can be expressed as:
expression, the turbulence-induced amplitude fluctuations and
the phase variations of the channel are introduced through (r) e
and (r), respectively. xT (t ) = AD 2 us (t ) Re { I exp( j 2 f IF t + IF (t ))} (8)
2hf c
Total output photocurrent at the receptor can be expressed
as:
with fIF = fc - fLO denoting the carying signal frequency, and
yT (t ) = xT (t ) + nT (t ) (2) fLO denoting local oscillator frequency. Equivalent signal
phase and effective fluctuation of the channel are represented
as IF and respectively. Simultaneous influence of
with nT(t) representing total noise at the receiver obtained as turbulence-induced amplitude fluctuations and phase
the sum of thermal noise, nTh , and active component shot aberrations, could be modeled through random irradiance
fluctuations distributed as Double Generalized Gamma
noise, nsh , [17], [18]:
process, expressed as [15]:

n(t ) = nTh + nsh (3) 2 pp m 1/ 2 q m 1/ 2 2 1 ( p + q )/ 2 I 1

2 1

fI (I ) =
(m1 )(m2 )
Thermal noise is mainly considered to be zero-mean Gaussian (9)
p p q q 1q (q :1 m1 ), ( p :1 m2 )
p

distributed random process with variance expressed as [17], G p0,+pq+,0q 22 ;

[18]:
q
I m1 m2
p

T where G pm,,qn (x) stands for the Meijers G-function defined in

Th2 = 4k B Fn f
RL
where k B stands for the Boltzmann constant while Fn denotes
amplifier noise figure. Parameters T and
temperature and load resistance respectively, while f denote
the effective noise bandwidth, a function of bit rate, Rb ,
f = Rb 2 .
Shot noise is mainly considered to be zero-mean Gaussian
(4)
[19], (x) denotes special Gamma function [19], p and q are
positive integer numbers that satisfy relation p/q = 1/2, and
( j; x ) x / j ,, ( x + j 1) / j . Turbulence parameters 1, 2,
RL define 1, 2, m1, m2, are defining nature of turbulence process,
namely m1, m2 are shaping parameters defining the turbulence-
induced propagation, while parameters 1, 2 are defining the
severity levels of independent irradiances forming observed
turbulence. Analytically their values could be tracked by using
the moments of small and large-scale irradiance fluctuations.
Values of DGG model parameters along FSO link are directly been provided and images were reconstructed.
tied to the atmospheric parameters (the ratio of Fresnel zone, Step 5: Qualities of reconstructed images are analyzed.
Rytov variance, 2Rytov, scintillation index, wavenumber, As the quality measure for the image transmission Peak
k = 2/, the refractive index structure constant, and the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Bit Error Rate (BER) are
propagation distance) with relations presented in [14]. Power used, defined as:
defining parameters 1 and 2 are related to atmospheric
conditions as explained in [14]. Assuming a plane wave with 2n 1
PSNR = 10 log10 , where
inner scale effects considered, the Rytov variance (2Rytov) can MSE
(x yij )
be presented as: 2 (12)
ij

MSE = i = 1...M , j = 1...N

ij
2Rytov
= 1.23Cn2 k 7 / 6 L11/ 6 (10)
M N

where L - propagation distance and Cn2 refraction index, while

k=2/ and denotes the FSO wavelenght.
( x ij l) ( yij )l
2 2
BER =
ijl
, (13)
Now, instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the M N
reception can be expressed as: i = 1...M , j = 1..N , l = 1...n.

Px Px where: xij, yij -pixel of original image and transmitted image, n-

= = = number of bits, M N -the size of the image, and denotes
2 n 2
2( Th + sh2 )
2

EXOR operator over each of n pair of bits from xij and yij.
e The values of the Rytov variance 2Rytov are obtained for
AD 2 I s (11)
2hf c FSO wavelenght of l = 1550 nm and different values of
= I 2
T refraction index Cn2 and propagation distance L for each
2(4k B Fn f + 2qg 2 FA RPmI
t f )
RL source image from fig.1. Images presented on fig. 2 are
halftoned images obtained by using error diffusion method [4].
where Is=|us(t)|2 denotes the average intensity of the optical
field, while Px stands for the output signal power.
Algorithm for simulation of FSO halftoned image
transmission is accomplished as follows:
Form halftoned digital image A* is created vector with with
binary elements D dimension 24MN. On vector D is applied
Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation X = 2 D 1 .
Now signal is transmitted trough turbulence channel:
Y=H*X+N, with H being vector that introduces the influence
of turbulence and is DGG distributed, while vector N
introduces level of total noise in the channel through defined
SNR level. At reception, first Grey decoding with hard a) b)
decisioning has been provided on Y, and reconstructed
halftoned A* image is obtained from vector D .

III. SIMULATION AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

FSO transmission of the halftoned images over the DGG
distributed turbulence channel has been simulated through
following further procedure:
Step 1: Source images from fig. 1 are imported from the base
and halftoned with error diffusion method (fig. 2).
Step 2: BPSK modulation was performed over obtained binary
representation of images. c) d)
Step 3: The BPSK-signal, X, is transmitted trough turbulence Fig 1. Images used in the paper: a) Lena, b) Girl, c) Baboon
channel: Y=H*X+N, with H being vector that introduces the and d) Peppers
influence of turbulence and is DGG distributed, while vector
N introduces level of total noise in the channel through Reconstructed image after transmission through DGG FSO
defined SNR level. Procedure is repeted for different values of channel are presented at fig. 3.
the Rytov variance.
Step 4: At reception, Grey decoding with hard decisioning has
 a)
Fig 3. Quality measurement BER for transmitted halftoned image Lena,
for constant values of turbulence shaping and severity parameters (1, 2, m1,
m2), and varied values of propagation distance and refraction index.

b)
Fig 2. Transmitted halftoned image Lena with apameter values: a)
2
1 = 2.0, 2 = 2.0, m1 = 1, m2 = 1, Rytov =2, and b) 1 = 2.0, 2 = 2.0, m1 = 1,
2
m2 = 1, Rytov =5.

Quality measure values for observed images are given on fig. 4

and fig. 5 and in Table I. After analyzing PSNR and BER
Fig 4. Quality measurement BER for transmitted halftoned image Lena,
values obtained for the halftoned image, transmitted through
for constant values of propagation distance and refraction index and varied
DGG turbulence channel (presented on fig. 4 and fig. 5, and in values of turbulence shaping and severity parameters (1, 2, m1, m2).
Table I), we can see that the transmitted image is reached very
good quality with PSNR values for PSNR = 66.19 and values
of BER smaller then 10-6 for DGG channel parameter value TABLE I. QUALITY MEASURE PSNR
1 = 2.0, 2 = 2.0, m1 = 2.0 and m2 = 3.5. Further performance
Parameters PSNR
improvement could be obtained by designing FSO link 1 = 2.0, 2 = 2.0, m1 = 2.0, m2 = 2.0 60.87
parameters (optical link distance, transmitted signal power, 1 = 2.0, 2 = 2.0, m1 = 3.5, m2 = 2.0 57.16
optical bandwidth, carrier signal wavelength, aperture 1 = 2.0, 2 = 2.0, m1 = 2.0, m2 = 3.5 66.19
diameters at the transmitter / receiver) in a way that quality 1 = 0.85, 2 = 2.0, m1 = 2.0, m2 = 2.0 34.47
measurement PSNR to be higher and BER to be smaller. 1 = 2.0, 2 = 0.85, m1 = 2.0, m2 = 2.0 33.92
IV. CONCLUSION
FSO transmission of the halftoned image over the DGG
turbulence channel has been considered through the prism of
received PSNR and BER values. FSO channel parameter
values 1 , 2 , m1 and m2 are determined for which is obtained
that quality measures PSNR and BER reach very good quality
of PSNR and satisfactory values of BER. Capitalizing on
proposed method FSO link parameters could be efficiently
determined in the FSO link designing process, in order to
reach demanded PSNR and BER quality of halftoned image at
the reception.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research was partly supported by the Ministry of
Education, Science and Technical Development of Republic
of Serbia, grant no. III44006
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