Effect of weather conditions on quality of Free Space Optics links (with focus on Malaysia)

Free space optics (FSO) is a promising optical technology that has a great chance to compliment the traditional wireless communications, through provision of high bandwidth, excellent security and reaching places where cable technology could never reach. Quality of FSO links however is greatly affected by weather conditions and link distance. Since there is no known analysis on the effect of weather conditions in Malaysia, this paper offers and attempt to analyze and simulate FSO links under typical local weather and terrain. The simulations under various weather conditions, ranging from light to heavy rain, clear weather to light and heavy haze, would help in determining system quality and design requirements, such as desired transmit power, receiver sensitivity, maximum range, etc. The quality analysis of the links in this paper is done in terms of BER, attenuation and link margin.