FSO Communication capacity in turbulent and
dispersive channel with AWGN noise.
Mohamed BOUHADDA
MACS laboratory
Moulay Ismail University
Meknès, Morocco
mohamed.bouhadda@usmba.ac.ma
Mustapha SERHANI
MACS laboratory
Moulay Ismail University
Meknès, Morocco
Abstract—In this paper, we have investigated the FSO
communication capacity in the presence of the temporal pulse
broadening effect which caused by the group velocity dispersion
and atmospheric turbulence. We have modeled the pulse
propagation in atmospheric turbulence and chromatic dispersion
by using the two-frequency mutual coherence function (MCF). By
using the Shannon-Hartly theorem, we have derived an analytical
expression for signal to noise ratio of the propagating Gaussian
pulse in dispersive and turbulent atmospheric channel. The results
shows that the capacity communication degrades drastically under
the temporal pulse broadening effect. The degradation is very
important for a longer distance. By increasing the power of the
transmitted signal, and choosing the appropriate transceiver
altitude, we can minimize the pulse-broadening effect on FSO
capacity.
Keywords—communication capacity, pulse broedening, SNR,
FSO chennel.
I. INTRODUCTION
The demand on communication capacity in internet and
cellular network has increased significantly over the past several
years. Thanks to the high capacity of the optical signal, the free
space optical communication (FSO) technology uses the
propagation of light waves over atmospheric channel for
transmitting high data between a transmitter and receiver. Over
a link distance equal to 10.45 km, researchers at the German
Aerospace Center have realized an FSO data transmission at
1.72 terabits per second [1]. This technology has been attracted
the attention of many researchers and telecommunication
operators because the FSO communication systems have
significant advantages over radio frequency communications
978-1-5386-7850-3/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
1
Fouad Mohamed ABBOU
AL AKHAWAYN University
Ifrane, Morocco
Ali BOUTOULOUT
MACS Laboratory
Moulay Ismail University
Meknès, Morocco
systems. For example, FSO systems can offer broadband
operation [2], high link security, lack of spectrum licensing, and
ease of deployment and integration with existing networks.
Because of its high data communication, the FSO can be used in
the cellular Internet of objects. The 5th generation cellular
networks can also integrate FSO technology in hybrid with radio
frequency to increase binary transmission rate data [3]. Despite
the advantages of the FSO link, this technology suffers from
atmospheric degradation, such as loss effects because of
absorption and scattering, degradation due to pointing error and
conditions limiting visibility (snow, fog and dust). In this work,
we focused on signal phase disturbances caused by atmospheric
turbulence and dispersion. The temporal pulse broadening is due
to two physical causes; chromatic dispersion in the atmosphere
which results in the displacement of the different wavelengths
constituting the pulse at different speeds, and atmospheric
turbulence which is a random fluctuation which occurs when air
balls of different temperatures are mixed by the wind inducing
fluctuations of the atmospheric refractive index [4]. When the
temporal pulse duration is more than the bit time duration, the
adjacent pulses overlap. In addition, the temporal broadening
causes losses, which reduce the average transmitted power.
Therefore, the effect of pulse broadening decreases transmission
capacity limits the communication link distance and increases
the bit error rate [5].The variation of atmospheric temperature
and pressure induces fluctuations in the temporal pulse
broadening caused only by chromatic dispersion, which
increases the FSO bit error rate [6]. The rest of this paper is
organized as follows. In the section two and three, we present
the atmospheric dispersion, and we give a mathematical
modelling of the atmospheric turbulence. In the section four, we
study the communication capacity. In the fifth section we
discuss, and analyze the results. Finally, we conclude the work.
 II. ATMOSPHERIC DISPERSION Where is the wave number < < .

The atmospheric refraction index is a parameter that

characterizes the behavior of optical waves in the atmosphere. It The complex envelop of pulse propagating in dispersive and
is a physical dimensionless quantity, which is given by [7]. turbulent channel is given by:
( , , )= ∫ ( , ) ( , , + ) exp(− ) (9)
( )= + ( ) (1)
Where ( , , + ) is the transfer function of the turbulent
Where ( ) is the random component induced by turbulence channel under the approximation of Rytov.
and p is a point of space, and is the average atmospheric The two-time, two points correlation function is given by
refractive index. It is expressed as [10]:
( , , , , )=
= 1 + 77.6(1 + 7.52 × 10 ) × 10 (2) ∬ ( , ) ∗( , ) ( , , , , ) (− +
) (10)
Where λ is the wavelength, and are respectively the
atmospheric pressure and the temperature. Where ( , , , , ) is the two-frequency correlation
For the carrier wave, we used the Gaussian pulse expressed as; function.The average intensity expression is obtained by
evaluating (10) for = = , = = , and by
introduction the following frequencies; ω = ω − ω
( , 0) = − (3)
andω = (ω + ω ) ;
is the temporal pulse width at half maximum. After
propagation of pulse in a dispersive medium, its Fourier
transform is expressed by: ∗
〈 ( , ; )〉 = ∬ + , −
( , )= − (4) , ( , , , + , ) ( ) (12)
Where z is the propagation distance, is the angular
,
frequency. = × 10 [ ⁄ ]is the term
IV. TEMPORAL PULSE BROEDENING
contains the group velocity dispersion.
Thearrival time of signal in optical transmission is a random
III. ATMOSPHERIC TURBULENCE variable that fluctuates around a mean value. It can be
statistically derived by the temporal moments [9].

Atmospheric turbulence is a random physical phenomenon that 〈 ( )〉

=∫ 〈 ( , , ) ∗ ( , , )〉 = 0,1,2. (13)
occurs through irregular air movements. The refractive index
fluctuations described by a stochastic process. The structure
function of the refractive index for two positions in space p1 and
p2, is given by [20]: Using the following expressions, we can calculate the moments
0, 1 and 2 [9];

D ( , ) = 〈| ( ) − ( )| 〉 (6) ∫ exp( ) = 2 (− ) ( ) (14)

Where 〈… 〉 is the statistical means.Using the two-third power ∫ ( ) ( ) = (−1) ( ) (15)
law of Kolmogorov-Obukhov, the structure function of the
refractive index becomes:
Where is the Dirac function.
⁄
( )= (ℎ) , ≤ ≤ (7)
We can deduct the rms width by the following expression [9];

Where is the distance between the two points p1 and p2. is 〈 ( )〉 〈 ( )〉

the structural constant of refractive index fluctuations, its value ( )= 〈 ( )〉
− 〈 ( )〉
(16)
characterizes the force of the turbulence, it can vary between
⁄ ⁄
10 for low turbulence, up 10 or more for
strong turbulence. is the inner scale which corresponds to the
spatial dimension of dissipation of the kinetic energy by
viscosity, and L0 is the outer scale it is a quantity characterizing
= 1+ + (17)
the spatial dimension of the largest tourbillions. The spectral
power density of refractive index is given by [8]:
⁄
Φ(K) = 0.0033C K (8)

2
 V. CAPACITY COMMUNICATION Responsivity (Rd) 0.6A/W`
Bandwidth (B) 14GHz

In this section, we consider a point-to-point FSO The channel capacity as a function of transmission link distance
communication link. We use intensity modulation/direct for different turbulences regimes is illustrated in Fig1. For weak
detection with Gaussian-OOK format because it is very used in
turbulence = 10 the communication capacity at
commercial FSO communication system. The communication
link distances 2 km, 10 km and 20km is; 12.8 Gb/s, 7.8 Gb/s
channel is dispersive and turbulent with additive white
and 5.1 Gb/s respectively. For moderate turbulence =
Gaussian noise. We consider de propagation in FSO as linear
equation; 10 the capacity at the same distances is 12.3 Gb/s, 5.9
Gb/s and 2.6Gb/s. For strong turbulence = 10
=ℎ + (18) and at the same link distances the capacity is11.1 GB/s, 3.9 Gb/s
and 0.9 Gb/s. The temporal pulse broadening effect degrades
Where ℎ is the channel-fading coefficient. In order to focalize significantly the FSO channel capacity.
our study on temporal pulse broadening caused by dispersion
and turbulence effect, we neglect the channel fading and the loss
due to absorption and scattering ℎ = 1. The channel model =
+ , is the transmitted power and is the additive white
Gaussian noise with zero-means and variance .

The received signal-to-noise ratio is [10]:

( ( ) )
( )= (19)

Where is the receiver responsivity, and is the dark noise,

thermal noise and the shot noise.

( ) is the received power under temporal pulse broadening Fig.1 Communication capacity versus link distance for weak, moderate and
effect, we can expressed it as [11]; strong turbulence.

The Fig.2 shows the communication capacity variation as

( ) = (0) ∫ − (20)
( ) ( ) function of link distance for different power values. We note
that the capacity decreases drastically, particularly, for the
transmitted low power. For the power values 70 mW, 40 mW
The communication capacity in dispersive and turbulent
and 10 mW the capacity at 2km is 12.3 Gb/s, 11.9 Gb/s and 10.3
atmospheric can be described in the framework of the
Gb/s respectively. For the same power values, the capacity at 20
Shannon’s linear theory by [10];
km is2.6 Gb/s, 1.7 Gb/s and 0.6 Gb/s. This numerical results
show that by increasing the transmitted power we can minimize
( ) ∫
( ) ( ) the degradation of the capacity, and achieve a longer link
( )= 1+ (21)
distance with an acceptable channel capacity.

Where (0) is the transmitted power, and is the system

spectral bandwidth.

VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results of simulations are obtained for a turbulent and

dispersive channel with AWGN noise. The system parameters
used in this simulation are listed in the table 1.

TABLE.1 SYSTEM PARAMETERS

Parameter Value

Wavelength (λ) 1550 nm

Receiver optical efficiency 1
Transmitter optical efficiency 1 Fig.2 Communication capacity versus link distance for different power.

Diameter of receiver 2cm

The Fig.3 shows the channel capacity variation as function of
Transmitting divergence angle θ 2.10-3 rad outer scale for different link distances configuration. According
to curves in Fig.3, it is clearly seen that the channel capacity
3
decreases when the outer scale increases. The curves shows that
the communication capacity is drastically reduced for longer
links. However, the outer scale of turbulence decreases with the
altitude ℎ (ℎ) = [12]. This mains, that we can
reduce the effect of the pulse broadening caused by turbulence
on channel capacity by choosing the appropriate altitude of
transmitter and receiver.
Fig.3 Communication capacity versus outer scale for different link distance.
VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have investigated the FSO communication
capacity under the effect of the temporal pulse broadening. A
signal to noise ratio expression is derived. It is clear that the
FSO communication decreases rapidly under the temporal pulse
broadening effect, in particular, for the longer link distance, the
high altitude, and the strong turbulence. It is also seen, that we
can minimize this effect by choosing the appropriate distance
link, the input power and the altitude of transmitter and receiver.
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