A Study on Atmospheric Turbulence Effects in Full-

Optical Free-Space Communication Systems

Xueying Wu
ChangChun Institute of Optic, Fine, Mechanics and Physics
Chinese Academy and Sciences
Changchun, China
Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing, China
Peng Liu ,Mitsuji Matsumoto
Global Information and Telecommunication Institute
Waseda University
Tokyo, Japan

Abstract Next generation free-space optical communication
systems have used fiber-optic technology as the seamless
connection between free-space and optical fiber. The full-
optical free-space optical communication systems use optical
fiber as the receiver to get faster communication speed. The
atmospheric turbulence deeply influenced on the optical wave
propagated in terrestrial application. As the active receiving area
of the full-optical free-space optical communication systems is
very small, it is important to research on the atmospheric
turbulence effects on the full-optical free-space optical
communication system. In this paper, we discuss about both the
turbulence-induced intensity fluctuations and the angle-of-arrival
effects in full-optical free-space optical communication systems
which are used in a few kilometers communication. We gave the
numerical results of the atmosphere turbulence effects on the
free-space optical communication systems. In order to minimize
the atmospheric turbulence influence on the full-optical free-
space optical communications system, we also investigate the use
of fine tracking system in the communication system. We have set
up a full-optical free-space communication system in Tokyo and
received useful data from the experiment. We compared the
receiving power of the experiment, when the fine tracking system
is On and Off. From the experiment results, we can see that the
fine tracking system effectively mitigates the atmospheric
turbulence and increases the receiving power of the
communication system.
Keywords-component: atmopheric turbulence; free-space
optical communication; angle-of-arrival; fine tracking
I. INTRODUCTION
Free-space optical communication has attracted a lot of
attentions recently. A lot of groups have conducted many
experiments on the FSO (free-space optical) communication.
As for the terrestrial applications it is always used for
providing communication links for up to several kilometers.
Together with the advancement of optical fiber technology,
free-space optical communication system requires even faster
communication speed. In order to enhance the communication
speed it is a good idea to use full-optical free-space optical
communication system. In the past, the free-space optical
communication systems always used photo detectors as the
receiver. As there are limitations in using the photo detectors,
we use optical fiber as the receiver in the next generation free-
space optical communication systems. We defined the systems
that use optical fiber as the receiver as full-optical free-space
optical communication systems. We can use the erbium-doped
fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) and wavelength division multiplexing
(WDM)technology to achieve higher communication
capacities. Using this full-optical technology it is easy to
connect with existing widely deployed optical fiber network.
For the next generation free space optical communication
system full-optical is very attractive technology.
When the free space optical communication system is used
in the terrestrial application, it is deeply influenced by the
atmospheric turbulence. From 1960s, many scientists have
done a lot of works on the optical wave propagation through
atmosphere turbulence [1-4]. They have given some models
about the optical wave propagation through random media. For
an optical wave propagating about 1km, we can use Rytov
method to calculate the effect of the atmosphere turbulence on
the optical wave propagation. And it gives quite good
agreement with the experiment data [5]. In 1975, Ronald
L.Fnate has summarized many important results about the
properties of wave propagation in random media [6]. In recent
years some researchers use the theory to analyze intensity
fluctuations when the receiving aperture is small and for the
full-optical free-space optical system, the received fiber core is
very small. It has influenced not only the intensity fluctuation
as a result of atmospheric turbulence but also the angle-of-
arrival fluctuation. The AOA (angle-of-arrival) fluctuation has
more influence on the full-optical system.
In the paper, we discuss both the intensity fluctuation and
angle-of-arrival fluctuation on the free space optical
communication system. And we focus on analyzing these
influences on the full-optical free-space optical communication
system. In the third part, we analyze the effect of using fine
tracking system to mitigate atmospheric turbulence induced
fluctuations and give some experiment results about it.
II. OPTICAL PROPAGATION IN THE ATMOSPHERE
Here we first outline the model of the index of refraction
fluctuation and review the Rytov method. For the full- optical
free-space optical communication system that used in several
kilometers, it suits to use the Rytov method in weak
turbulence. We have applied this method to analyze the
intensity fluctuation, aperture averaging and angle-of-arrival
978-1-4244-3709-2/10/$25.00 2010 IEEE
separately which are the main effects of atmospheric
turbulence on the optical wave propagation [7].
A. Index of Refraction Model
For the near surface of the earth we use the Kolmogorov
model as the wave number spectrum of the index of refraction
fluctuations.

n
(k) = u.uSSC
n
2
k
-113
(1)
The quantity C
n
2
is known as the index of refraction
structure constant. It is a measure of magnitude of the
fluctuation in the index of refraction. The wave number of the
optical wave is represented by k.
For the free space optical communication especially used
in the surface of the earth, the communication range is not so
far. Thus we can use the Rytov method to calculate the effect
of the atmosphere turbulence.
B. The Intensity Fluctuation
We know that the intensity fluctuation caused by the log-
amplitude fluctuation is normal distribution. The distribution
function of X is shown as [6]:
f
x
(x) =
1
(2
x
2
)
12
exp ]-
(x-E|x])
2
2
x
2
(2)
The light intensity I is related to the log-amplitude X by
I = I
0
exp(2x - 2E|x]) (3)
Where E|x] is the ensemble average of log-amplitude x.
From (2) and (3) the average light intensity is
E|I] = E|I
0
exp(2x -2E|x])] = I
0
exp(2
x
2
) (4)
Hence the marginal distribution of light intensity fading
induced by turbulence is log-normal
f
I
(I) =
1
2I
1
(2
x
2
)
12
exp ]-
|In(I)-In(I
0
)]
2
8
x
2
(5)
As for the weak turbulence the covariance of the log-
amplitude fluctuation X of plane waves is given as:

x
2
=
6
11
u.S6k
76
C
n
2
R
116
(6)

I
2
= 4
x
2
= 1.22k
76
C
n
2
R
116
(7)
C. The Aperture Averaging
The intensity fluctuation
I
2
is shown in (7) which would
be measured by a receiving aperture with a small diameter. In
practice the receiving aperture has a finite diameter and the
intensity fluctuations measured will not be
I
2
, but rather an
average of the fluctuations over the whole aperture. When we
measure the aperture averaging, the aperture averaging factor A
is defined as the ratio of the normalized intensity variance of
fluctuating of a receiver with diameter D to that of a point
receiver. For plane waves with small inner scale, l
0
<
(Rk)
12
, where R is the propagation distance and k is the
wave number. The aperture averaging factor may be
approximated by [8-9]:
A =

I
2
(D)

I
2
(D=0)
= _1 + 1.u7 [
kD
2
4R

76
_
-1
(8)
Fig. 1 shows the aperture averaging factor A changes with
the propagation length, when the receiver diameter is 0.04m,
0.08m and 0.16m.

Figure 1. aperture averaging factor
D. Angel-of-Arrival
We have discussed the log-amplitude fluctuation. Now we
begin to discuss about the phase fluctuation. When an optical
wave propagated in vacuum, it has a uniform wave front.
Because the atmosphere influenced, different portions of the
wave front will experience different phase shifts at the receiver
surface. When an optical wave propagated in a random
medium, it will have random surface of constant phase. The
phase distortion leads to fluctuations in the angle-of-arrival .
This causes image jitter in the received telescope that has large
effect on the FSO system using optical fiber to receive the
optical signal [10-11].
Consider the receiving aperture of diameter is D; the
phase difference S across the aperture can be approximated
by:
S = kBsin = kB (9)
The mean-square angle-of-arrival fluctuation can be
written as
(
2
) =
(S
2
)
k
2
D
2
=
d
s
(x,0,D)
k
2
D
2
(10)
where u
s
is the phase structure function and is defined as
u
s
(x,
1
,
2
) (|S
1
(x,
1
) - S
1
(x,
2
)]
2
) (11)
As for a plane wave in homogeneous turbulence, when the
receiving aperture of diameter is
L
0
> B > (R)
12
(12)
then
u
s
() = 2.92k
2
C
n
2
R||
53
(13)
(
2
) = 2.92
C
n
2
R
D
13
(14)
and the angle of arrival spectrum W

() can be obtained
by evaluation.
W

() = u.u6S2
V
S
3C
n
2
R
D
2
j1 - cos [
D
V
[
[
2

83
_1+[
1.0V
L
0

2
_
43
(15)
Where, V is the wind speed velocity, is the angular
frequency, and L
0
is the outer scale size of the atmospheric
turbulence.
III. EFFECT ON THE FULL-OPTICAL FREE-SAPCE OPTICAL
COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
In this part, we will discuss the atmospheric turbulence
influence on the full optical FSO communication system. In the
next part, we will discuss the fine tracking system effect on the
system.
A. Introduction of the Full Optical FSO system
We use a new FSO communication system, the full-
optical FSO system [12-14]; which utilizes a fine tracking
system to decrease the influence of atmosphere turbulence. The
position of the received optical signal is received by a quadrant
detector (QD) for which an output controls a fine pointing
mirror to track the received optical signal. This system is
shown in Fig.2.

Figure 2. full optical FSO communication terminal overview
Table 1show some parameters of the system.
TABLE I. Characteristics of the new FSO system
parameter Symbol specification
Communication
wavelength
1550nm
Antenna aperture D 80mm
Coupling losses L
c
5dB
Divergence angle 2
d
94.5iau
Focal length F 1.4m
Communication
distance
R 1Km
SMF diameter u
SMF
10m
B. The intensity fluctuation of the Aperture
receiving power
From (7) and (8) the intensity fluctuation with the
Aperture diameter D is shown in (16)

I
2
(B) = A
I
2
(B = u) =
_1 +1.u7 [
kD
2
4R

76
_
-1
1.22k
76
C
n
2
R
116
(16)
For D=0.08m, k =
2

, when C
n
2
is 1u
-13
, 1u
-14
anu 1u
-15

and R change from 0to3000m the variations of intensity
fluctuation with aperture averaging is shown in the
Fig.3.

Figure 3. intensity fluctuation with aperture averaging
The Rytov theory holds that the light propagation distance
is in 1km when the index of refraction structure constant is
smaller than 1u
-13
. Therefore it can be used to analyze our
system. From (5), we assume C
n
2
= 1u
-13
, the cumulative
distribution function (cdf) and probability density function
(pdf) of intensity turbulence distribution is shown in Fig.4.

Figure 4. Aperture received intensity distribution
From Fig.4, we derive that when the receiving power is
higher than 0.32 of the average, it is about 99.99% for the
receiving power. So we can confirm the intensity deform is
about -5dB effect by the atmosphere turbulence intensity
fluctuation.
C. The Fiber-coupling efficiency
First we use the coupling losses to calculate the received
light spot diameter u
R
. The diameter of the SMF (single mode
fiber) u
SMF
is 10m. And for the full optical FSO system we
want to couple the optical light directly into the fiber. For the
calculated below, we assume that the receiving light spot is the
average distribution without atmosphere turbulence.
L
c
= 1ulog
A
5MF
A
R
(17)
Where A
SMF
is the area of the fiber end face. A
R
is the
area of the received light spot. So u
R
can be get from (17)
u
R
= u
SMF
exp (-L
c
2u) (18)
L
c
is -5dB. So from (17) we can get the diameter of the
received light spot is 12.84um.
The received light spot moved around the center of the
optical fiber. r is the distance from the center of optical fiber
and the center of the received light spot. So the fiber-coupling
efficiency is [15-16]:
=
P
c
P
a
=
_ E
R,A()
E
5MF,A
5MF
()
dr
A

2
_ E
R,A()

2
dr
A
(19)
For the received light spot distribution is average, so
A
R
= _ |E
R,A(r)
|
2
ui
A
(20)
A
SMFR
(i) = _ E
R,A(r)
E
SMF,A
5MF
(r)
ui
A

2
(21)
since we assume the fiber coupling effect is also averaging
distribution, the coupling power can be calculated by:
P
c
(i) = P
a

A
5MFR
(r)
A
R
(22)
The distributions of distance between the light spot and
the optical fiber can be calculated using the angle-of-arrival.
We know that the AOA (angle-of-arrival) is normal
distribution. From (14) is known the normal distribution`s
standard deviation. For we use the lens to focus the received
light directly onto the end face of optical fiber. So the
movement distance r influenced by AOA can be calculated
using (23)
i = f sin = f (23)
Where, f is the focal length of the lens.
From (14) and (23) we can get the distribution of r:
P(i) =
1
_5.84C
n
2
RD
-13
I
2
exp (-
r
2
5.84C
n
2
RD
-13
I
2
) (24)
so the average fiber-coupling power
P
c
= ] ]P(i)P
c
(i)ui

-
(25)
Fig.5 shows the numerical results of the fiber-coupling
efficiency.

Figure5. fiber-coupling efficiency vs
r

IV. ANALYSIS OF FINE TRACKING EFFECT ON THE AOA
INFLUENCE

From the analysis of AOA influence on the full optical
FSO communication system, we know that when using optical
fiber to receive the optical signal, the receiving power is deeply
influenced by the AOA. The fine tracking system is used to
enhance the fiber-coupling efficiency. A lot of work has been
done on the fine tracking system [17-18] to get a lot of useful
result on it. In this part we mainly discuss the effect of the fine
tracking system and give some results on its design. At last, we
give some experiment result of our full optical FSO
communication system.
From the control theory, we assume the movement
frequency is f
r
and the movement distance is r. When the
closed-loop frequency of tracking system is 10 times that of f
r

,the tracking system can minimize the movement distance to
r
4
.
So we can consider the standard deviation of movement
distance
r
is also minimize to

r
4
, . From Fig.6 the fiber-
coupling efficiency will increase about 4 times. We are
experimenting our system is in the Tokyo area, where the
atmosphere data the wind speed velocity is generally in the
range of 2m/s in most days. From (15) we know that the angle-
of-arrival spectrum is shown as Fig.6.

Figure6. angle-of-arrival spectrum
When wind speed velocity is 2m/s and antenna aperture of
the receiver is 0.08m, it can be seen from Fig.6 that the high
frequency of angle-of-arrival spectrum is about 100Hz.
Therefore the fine tracking system frequency should be higher
than 1000Hz.
We used the fine tracking system in the full optical FSO
communication systems to communicate in about 1 Km. And
Fig.7 showed the receiving power of the experiment when the
fine tracking system is On and Off. Although two data were
not simultaneous, these were acquired almost at the same time.
Each signal is stored in 30 second interval with 1000Hz the
sampling speed.

Figure7. Receive power of tracking on and off
We used optical-electrical converter to change the
received optical power to voltage. As the minimum range of
AD converter is limited, the minimum of the received signal is
about 1V shown in Fig.8. From the figure we can see most of
the receiving power with the tracking on is changed from 3.4V
to 3.6V. When we stopped the fine tracking system, the
receiving power is changed from the minimum to 3V. The
range of the receiving power changed dramatically becoming
larger without the fine tracking system. It is the same with the
theory analysis.
V. SUMMARY AND RESULTS
We have analyzed the atmospheric turbulence effect on
the full optical free space optical communication system. From
the result we know that the atmospheric turbulence intensity
fluctuation effect on the system can be effectively minimized
by the aperture averaging. For the case of the full-optical free-
space optical communication system because the active area of
the receiver is very small, the effect of angle-of-arrival
fluctuation is large. We have also shown the average fiber-
coupling efficiency with the movement distance caused by the
angle-of-arrival fluctuation.
Finally we discussed the effects of using fine tracking
system in the full-optical free-space optical communication
system. The analysis has shown that the fine tracking system
can decrease the AOA influence. Since the high frequency of
AOA spectrum is about 100Hz, the closed-loop frequency of
the fine tracking system should be higher than 1000Hz. We
have done some experiment on the effect of fine tracking
system. When tracking, the full-optical free-space optical
communication system can work all day. So, we can see from
the experiment the fine tracking system for the full-optical free-
space optical communication systems is very useful.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
A part of this work is supported by Global Center of
Excellence (Global COE).
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