Weather effects on hybrid FSO/RF communication link

Author

Nadeem, Farukh ; Kvicera, Vaclav ; Awan, Muhammad Saleem ; Leitgeb, Erich ; Muhammad, Sajid Sheikh ; Kandus, Gorazd

Author_Institution

Inst. for Broadband Commun., Graz Univ. of Technol., Graz, Austria

Volume

27

Issue

9

fYear

2009

fDate

12/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1687

Lastpage

1697

Abstract

Free space optics (FSO) or optical wireless systems provide high data rate solution for bandwidth hungry communication applications. Carrier class availability is a necessity for wide scale acceptability which is extremely difficult to achieve in the case of optical wireless links. FSO links are highly weather-dependent and different weather effects reduce the link availability. Employing a hybrid network consisting of an FSO link and a back up link in the GHz frequency range renders high availability besides providing comparable data rates. In this paper effects of fog, rain and snow on FSO/GHz hybrid network are studied so that GHz frequencies with best complementary behaviour can be selected as a back up link. As a prime conclusion of the article, it is suggested that free space optical links can be supplemented with 40 GHz RF links to achieve near carrier class availability.

Keywords

atmospheric turbulence; fog; meteorology; optical communication; optical links; rain; snow; FSO communication link; GHz frequency; RF communication link; carrier class availability; fog; free space optics; frequency 40 GHz; hybrid network; optical wireless link; optical wireless system; rain; snow; weather effect; Artificial satellites; Availability; Back; Biomedical optical imaging; High speed optical techniques; Optical attenuators; Radio frequency; Rain; Snow; Video on demand; Optical wireless, Radio frequency, Fog, Rain, Snow, Hybrid network, Weather influence, Attenuation, Simulation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Selected Areas in Communications, IEEE Journal on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8716

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSAC.2009.091218

Filename

5342328