Approximate Performance Analysis of Wireless Ultraviolet Links

The wireless ultraviolet (UV) communication technology has received great attention for either short-range high data-rate services or medium-to-large range low-rate sensing applications. However, performance of a UV link is limited by multiple constraints from the current UV laser source and detector technology, and atmospheric link conditions. This paper analyzes performance of both line of sight (LOS) and non-line of sight (NLOS) UV links in terms of signal to noise ratio and bit error rate of the detector. Roles of different parameters, such as data rate, communication range, transmitter power, beam and focal angle, receiving angle and field of view, are studied. Receiving powers for two typical links demonstrate square and linear decaying laws with respect to the communication range respectively. Compared with an LOS link, an NLOS link significantly degrades detection performance from one up to three orders of magnitude for the range from hundreds of meters down to meters.