Unit-5

Free- Space Optical communication

OVERVIEW OF FSO :
A fiber optic communication link uses light sources and detectors to send and receive information
through a fiber optic cable. Similarly, FSO uses light sources and detectors to send and receive
information, but through the atmosphere instead of a cable (1). The motivation for FSO is to eliminate
the cost, time, and effort of installing fiber optic cable, yet retain the benefit of high data rates (up to 1
Gb/s and beyond) for transmission of voice, data, images, and video. However, swapping light
propagation through a precisely manufactured dielectric waveguide for propagation through the
atmosphere imposes significant penalties on performance. Specifically, the effective distance of FSO
links is limited; depending on atmospheric conditions the maximum range is 2-3 km, but 200-500 meters
is typical to meet telco grades of availability. Thus, at present, FSO systems are used primarily in last
mile applications to connect end users to a broadband network backbone as shown in Figure 1.
Although FSO equipment is undergoing continuous development, the emphasis is on improving its
application to local area networks (LAN) and, in some cases, MANs (e.g., to close a short gap in a ring
network), but not to long-haul relay systems. The design goal of a long-haul transmission system is to
maximize the separation of relays in spanning distances between cities and countries. For that purpose,
FSO is uneconomical compared to fiber optic or microwave radio systems .

Figure 1. Example of End-user Access to Backbone Network using

FSO.
In the following sections, FSO technology is described by comparing it to fiber optic communications for
a single-link communication system. This provides a basis for understanding the direction FSO is
heading relative to evelopments in fiber optics. Benefits of FSO are then considered, particularly those of
military interest, such as portability and quick deployment. Drawbacks of FSO are discussed as well as
some current research to overcome them. Finally, network considerations as well as current products
and potential applications are discussed.
FSO Characteristics:
A generalized FSO system is shown in Figure 3, and the optical transmitter and receiver are shown in
greater detail in Figure 4. The baseband transmission bit stream is an input to the modulator, turning the
direct current bias current on and off to modulate the laser diode (LD) or light emitting diode (LED) light
source. The modulated beam then passes through a collimating lens that forms the beam into a parallel
ray propagating through the atmosphere. A fundamental physical constraint, the diffraction limit, comes
into play at this point.
It says that the beam of an intensity modulated (non-coherent) light source cannot be focused
to an area smaller than that at its source . Apart from the effects of atmospheric processes, even in
vacuum, a light beam propagating through free space undergoes divergence or spreading. Recalling the
single-link communication system in Figure 2, the transmitted FSO beam is transformed by several
physical processes inherent to atmosphere: frequency-selective (line) absorption, scattering, turbulence,
and sporadic misalignment of transmitter and receiver due to displacement (twist and sway) of buildings
or structures upon which the FSO equipment is mounted.

Figure 3. Block Diagram, FSO Communication System

These processes are non-stationary, which means that their influence on a link changes unpredictably
with time and position. At the distant end, a telescope collects and focuses a fraction of the light beam
onto a photo-detector that converts the optical signal to an electrical
signal. The detected signal is then amplified and passes to processing, switching, and distribution
stages. The basic signal processing functions of the transmitter and receiver are
shown schematically in Figure 4. Figure 5 is an illustration of a simplified single-beam FSO transceiver
that shows how the major functional blocks of the equipment are arranged and integrated.
 Figure 4. Block Diagram of Fiber Optic Transmitter and Receiver Assemblies

Figure 5. Single-beam FSO Transceiver

The non-stationary atmospheric processes, divergence (or beam spreading), absorption, scattering,
refractive turbulence, and displacement, are the factors that most limit the performance of FSO systems.
A brief description of each is given in the following paragraphs. Divergence. Divergence determines how
much useful signal energy will be collected at the receive end of a communication link. It also
determines how sensitive a link will be to displacement disturbances (see below). Of the processes that
cause attenuation, divergence is the only one that is independent of the transmission medium; it will
occur invacuo just as much as in a stratified atmosphere. Laser light can be characterized as partially
coherent, quasimonochromatic electromagnetic waves passing a point in a wave field. At the transmitter,
beam divergence is caused by diffraction around the circular aperture at the end of the telescope.
 In practice, an FSO transmit beam is defocused from the diffraction limit enough to be larger
than the diameter of the telescope at the receive end, and thus maintain alignment with the receiver in
the face of random displacement disturbances. Absorption. Molecules of some gases in the atmosphere
absorb laser light energy; primarily water vapor, Carbon Dioxide (CO2), and Methane, Natural Gas
(CH4). The transmission spectra in Figure 6 show wavelength dependent absorption lines caused, in
part, by light energy exciting resonant vibrational and rotational modes in gas molecules. The presence
of these gases along a path changes unpredictably with the weather over time. Thus their effect on the
availability of the link is also unpredictable. Another way of stating this is that different spectrum windows
of transmission open up at different times, but to take advantage of these, the transmitter would have to
be able to switch (or retune) to different wavelengths in a sort of wavelength diversity technique.
Scattering. Another cause of light wave attenuation in the atmosphere is scattering from aerosols and
particles. The actual mechanism is known as Mie scatter in which aerosols and particles comprising fog,
clouds, and dust, roughly the same size as the light’s wavelength, deflect the light from its original
direction. Some scattered wavelets travel a longer path to the receiver, arriving out of phase with the
direct (unscattered) ray. Thus destructive interference may occur which causes attenuation. Note how
attenuation is much more pronounced for the spectrum in 6(b) for transmission through fog.

Benefits of the Technology:

The attraction of FSO is its high data transmission rate and its exemption from spectrum regulation. The
latter is especially significant for military ground forces setting up camps and forward operating bases
overseas. Whereas application for frequency assignments in the United States is a ponderous process,
in a foreign country it is all the more so, and fraught with some uncertainty; the request may be denied,
or services may be impaired by interferers due to poor frequency planning or intentional jamming. At the
very least it is time consuming. To be able to circumvent the spectrum management bureaucracy is a
huge advantage given urgent communication requirements. Since light beams do not interfere with each
other as long as they are not coaxial, commanders need not be concerned with electromagnetic
compatibility problems. FSO is as ready a resource as a light bulb in a socket, and installation of FSO
equipment is quick and inexpensive. FSO’s drawbacks in the commercial world are perhaps not as
serious in the military context. Using short FSO repeater spacings for camp communications may still be
more economical than installing fiber optic cable, and it allows more flexibility for re-routing lines of
communication as the camp grows. In the Southwest Asia Theater for example, FSO could free up
tactical equipment that has been used as a stopgap for camp communications, and eliminate runs of
loose field wire. FSO would carry all communication services, not just voice or data separately.

Drawbacks or Challenges of the Technology:

 Laser eye safety. It is important to keep in mind, especially if FSO is to gain widespread use for
camp communications, that lasers must be operated within certain levels of irradiance [w/m2] for
eye safety.
  The harmful level of exposure is a function of wavelength and is tabulated in American National
Standards Institute (ANSI) Standard Z136.1.
 Disruption by weather. Although FSO may at times be capable of greater range, its greater
susceptibility to degradation from incidents of heavy fog or dust will drive down its attainable
availability figures. This will depend on which region of the world FSO is planned for. For
example, frequent dust storms of such severity as to result in black out conditions often occur in
tactical desert conditions.
 Furthermore, the summer heat in the desert and along coastlines induces extreme refractive
turbulence that would cause optical defocusing and beam wander.

NETWORK CONSIDERATIONS:
Serial Networking Considerations:

Technical control facilities (TCF) are currently based on multiplexing data serially. The majority of
the information processed through a TCF is serial data and voice. The usual multiplexing technique is
Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) where each user is assigned to one (or more) ports of a multiplexer.
All of the ports are then aggregated into one data stream. The current infrastructure allows transmission
from point to point by many different means including radio transmission, wire, and fiber. FSO is able to
transmit and receive this data seamlessly. User networks and the networks in the TCFs have started
migrating to Internet Protocol (IP) based systems and will continue to do so. FSO is able to handle the
transmission requirements for this migration.

ADVANTAGES:
The transmission medium selection is based on many differing engineering requirements with cost and
schedule being major considerations. FSO in serial transmission may be advantageous when
requirements call for short transmission paths requiring quick installations. FSO devices have
advantages to radio and fiber based systems if speed of installation is the dominating concern when
providing the last mile connectivity. The setup of these systems is quick and as long as the distance
requirements are within their scope of operation these devices may be considered as a viable option.
 Ease of deployment
 License-free operation
 High bit rates
 Low bit error rates
 Immunity to electromagnetic interference
 Full duplex operation
 Protocol transparency
 Very secure due to the high directionality
 No Fresnel zone necessary

OPTICAL TRANSMITTERS:
 The optical transmitter including the choice of laser, concept of ATP system, and various types of
modulation schemes and coding techniques used in FSO communication system are discussed in
this section.
 The transmitter converts the source information into optical signals which are transmitted to the
receiver through the atmosphere.
 The essential components of the transmitter are (i) modulator, (ii) driver circuit for the optical source
to stabilize the optical radiations against temperature fluctuations, and (iii) collimator that collects,
collimates, and direct the optical signals toward the receiver via atmospheric channel.
 The optical sources that are used for FSO transmission lie in the atmospheric transmission window
that is ranging from 700 to 10,000 nm wavelength.
 The wavelength range from 780 to 1064 nm is most widely used as beacon operating wavelength.
 The 1550 nm wavelength is commonly used as data operating wavelength due to following reasons:

(i) Reduced background noise and Rayleigh scattering: The absorption coefficient of the
Rayleigh scattering has functional dependence with the wavelength.
(ii) Consequently, there is almost negligible attenuation at higher operating wavelengths as
compared to those at the visible range.
(iii) High transmitter power: At 1550 nm a much higher power level (almost 50 times) than at
lower wavelengths is available to overcome various losses due to attenuation.
(iv) Eye-safe wavelength: The maximum permissible exposure (MPE) for eye is much higher at
1550 nm wavelength than at 850 nm. This difference can be explained by the fact that at
850 nm, approximately 50% of the signal can reach the retina whereas at 1550 nm, the
signal is almost completely absorbed by cornea itself. And therefore the signal received at
the retina is negligibly small.

 The component cost increases with the increase in the operating wavelength. For good optical
transmitter, the choice of laser power and wavelength has to be made very carefully so that an
appropriate optical power and transmit antenna gain can be achieved in order to form a closed
loop communication link.
 However, this is not the only constraint for most laser sources. The selection of laser is
influenced by several other factors including efficiency, operational lifetime, and achievable
diffraction limited output power and weight.
 A good source will have narrow, stable spectral line width and nearly diffraction-limited single
mode spatial profile.

Key requirements which affect the choice of the transmitter laser for FSO-based applications are
given below:

 Pulse repetition frequency (PRF): The laser pulsing mechanism (e.g., Qswitching, cavity
dumping) determines the PRF of the laser. Q
  Average output power: The laser should have sufficient average power for a reliable
communication link with adequate link margin. For any good laser, it should provide pulse to
pulse power stability and nearly constant average power over different data rates.
 Pulse width: Laser pulse width should be small to facilitate less background noise in narrow
temporal slots.
 Pulse extinction ratio: The ratio of laser power in on-mode to that of in offmode is called pulse
extinction ratio.
 Output beam quality: The output of the laser should consist of single spatial mode or at least
have single null in the center of far field pattern.
 Beam pointing stability: For FSO-based applications, the pointing accuracy on the order of
micro-radian or better is desirable.
 Overall efficiency: In order to minimize the electrical power requirement, it is desirable to have
highest possible overall efficiency.
 Mass and size: For any space-based applications, the mass and size of all the components
should be minimized to achieve low launch cost. It therefore necessitates the use of
optomechanical designs of laser resonator.
 Operational lifetime: The lifetime of the active laser components (e.g., diode laser, modulator
and drivers, etc.) are expected to exceed the operational lifetime of the system.
 Thermal control and management: An efficient thermal control is required so that the
dissipated heat does not affect the optical alignment integrity of the system that would otherwise
result in further loss.

RECEIVER:
 The receiver helps to recover the transmitted data after propagating through turbulent atmosphere.
It consists of receiver telescope, filter, photodetector, signal processing unit, and demodulator.
 The receiver telescope comprises of lenses that focus the received optical signal onto the
photodetector.
 The filter is used to reduce the amount of background noise.
 The noise sources present at the receiver include background, detector dark current, preamplifier,
signal shot noise, and thermal noise.
 The photodetector converts the received optical signal into electrical signal which is passed on to
the processing unit and then to the demodulator.
 In the receiver, both PIN and APD can be used. In the FSO uplink, the received power Level is
quite low due to large free-space loss.
 At this power level, an APD receiver gives much better performance than the PIN receiver.

The choice of optical receiver depends upon various fundamental issues and hardware
parameters. Some of the important parameters are listed below:

 Modulation technique: The detection technique used at the receiver depends upon the
modulation format
  Hardware availability, reliability, and cost: Different types of receiver have different hardware
requirements which may or may not be readily available at reasonable cost.
 Receiver sensitivity: This is a very important parameter in all optical communication system
including FSO communication system.
 Photon detection technique: As mentioned earlier, the detection technique used in the optical
receiver can be broadly classified into two types, viz., coherent detection and noncoherent direct
detection.
 Modulation format: The type of modulation format used for FSO link affects the sensitivity of
the receiver.
 Photo detector and background noise: There are various types of noise sources which
contribute noise in the FSO receiver

Types of Detectors:

Based on the applications, the characteristics of the detector used are different and they can be
classified into two types, i.e., communication and beacon detectors

Communication Detectors:
 In an FSO communication system, commonly used detectors are PIN and APD. The APD
provides moderate front end gain (50 to 200), low noise, and good quantum efficiency,
depending upon the operating wavelength. The Si-APD has low noise, but suffers from low
quantum efficiency above 1000 nm. However, InGaAs- and InGaAsP-based APDs provide
good quantum efficiency beyond 1000 nm

Beacon Detectors:
 Besides communication, ATP is also very essential for establishing an FSO communication link.
Various types of spatial acquisition and tracking detectors are used at the receiver to detect the
beacon signal that is searching over a large region of uncertainty.

Coherent PSK Homodyne Receiver

 The homodyne PSK receiver has the highest receiver sensitivity. In case of coherent receivers,
photodetector in the receiver configuration act as a mixer for incoming optical signals and
background noise (i.e., within the range of BPF).
 Therefore, it produces signal-background, background-background beat noise components
along with the desired signal component.
 In addition to above noise components, the presence of LO will produce LO-background beat
noise component too.

 All these noise components will collectively degrade the performance of FSO system. For
homodyne receiver configuration, the frequency of LO is the same as that of incoming signal
frequency.

where Es, EBG and EL are the electric field strengths due to signal, background, and LO, respectively
Coherent FSK Heterodyne Receiver

For heterodyne receiver, intermediate frequency (IF) stage is used . Here, the frequency of LO, ! L, is
offset from incoming signal frequency, ! s, by a factor equal to intermediate frequency, ! IF. Therefore, the
received signal photocurrent at photodetector will be

The analysis for coherent FSK heterodyne receiver is similar to that of coherent PSK homodyne receiver
but the performance curve will shift toward the right by 6 dB.

Direct Detection (PIN +OA) Receiver for OOK

Direct detection (PIN +OA) receiver follows the same block diagram except that IF stage and LO blocks
will not be used here. Various signal and noise components under the same condition as in homodyne
receiver, i.e., __f B,
are given as

Direct Detection (APD) Receiver for OOK

This receiver configuration follows the same block diagram a except that IF stage and LO blocks will not
be there. The detector will be APD instead of PIN. In this case, various signal and noise components
under the condition
are given by
Direct Detection (APD) for M-PPM
In M-PPM scheme, each word contains n bits of information, i.e., M D 2n. Therefore, a complete data
word is divided into M slots of duration Ts seconds, and information is placed in any one of these slots.
The bandwidth occupied by M-PPM is given by

LINE OF SIGHT ANALYSIS:

In the design of FSO link for a given requirements, some trade-offs have to be made among
various design parameters. These are discussed below.

a) Operating Wavelength
(i) Availability of laser: While choosing the laser for any system, we need to consider peak-to-
average power ratio, available peak power, electrical-tooptical conversion efficiency, and overall
power consumption. Therefore, the trade-off between available laser technologies which
strongly depend upon operating wavelength should be made to identify the appropriate choice.

(ii) Gain vs. beamwidth: In general, the gain of optical transmit or receive antenna is given as G _
._DR=_/2 : Thus gain is inversely proportional to the operating wavelength, and hence it is
desirable to work at lower operating wavelengths to get more gain. However, beamwidth of the
system is proportional to ._=D/. This implies that at lower operating wavelength, beamwidth will
be narrower leading to increase in pointing errors. Therefore, a trade-off between higher gain
and reducing signal fades due to pointing error has to be considered.

(iii) Atmospheric absorption and scattering: The atmospheric absorption and scattering depend
upon the choice of operating wavelength. When a light beam travels through the atmosphere, it
may be absorbed or scattered by the constituent particles of the atmosphere. Only the
wavelengths outside the main absorption band can be used for optical communication. The
region of maximum absorption is called forbidden band, and the region used for optical
communication is called atmospheric transmission band. The transmission window for FSO
communication system is in the visible and near-infrared region that stretches roughly from 750
to 1600 nm. However, certain wavelengths in the near-infrared region suffer from strong
atmospheric absorption due to the presence of the water particles (moisture).

(iv) Detector sensitivity: The sensitivity of the PIN detector is determined by its detection efficiency.
In case of APD, the detection sensitivity depends upon gainM; quantum efficiency , and excess
noise factor F. A good APD detector is characterized by high gain, large bandwidth, high
efficiency, and low excess noise factor.

b) Aperture Diameter
 The power efficiency in FSO link depends on the transmitter and receiver aperture areas. In
order to reduce the transmit power requirement, it is desirable to have larger receiver aperture
size.
 However, the receiver aperture area cannot be increased indefinitely as it will enhance the
background noise contribution and leads to increase inmass of the terminal.
 c) Receiver Optical Bandwidth
 The FSO link performance can be improved by reducing the background noise with the help of
BPFs. The filter bandwidth should be sufficient enough to pass the information signal without
any distortion.

POINTING, ACQUISITION AND TRACKING:

 Spatial acquisition of the onboard satellite terminal using a narrow laser beam is a very difficult
task. Before the actual data transmission begins, the ground-based receiving terminal is first
required to establish a LOS link to the satellite.
 It can be accomplished using a beacon laser signal of sufficient beam divergence that allows the
transmitted power to search within the uncertainty area (in the order of mrad) of the receiver.
 The uncertainty area is typically larger than the beam divergence required for detection. This
beacon signal is then acquired by the onboard satellite which is simultaneously searching for the
beacon signal in its FOV.
 This is done with the help of focal pixel array (FPA) which has a FOV sufficiently wide to cover
the full search FOV.
 Hence, the receiving terminal need not scan its own uncertainity area to acquire the beacon
signal and thus helps in reducing the acquisition time.
 Once the signal is received, the controller logic on the satellite begins the process of narrowing
its FOV until both systems have locked on to each other’s signal.
  Controller logic then commands the optical beam steering element to keep the received signal
bore sighted on the detector
 .At this point, tracking loop is activated and onboard laser is then turned on for the downlink.
 The downlink beam is then picked up by the ground-based receiver to complete the link.
 Once the link is established, the transmission of data from the onboard laser can take place.
 In order to minimize the time required to acquire the target and improve system efficiency, the
narrow laser beam should steer or point synchronously toward the receiver FOV.
 If the transmitter laser beam is larger than the receiver FOV, it will result in energy loss. If the
laser beam is narrower than the receiver FOV, it increases the acquisition time. Therefore, in
order to reduce the acquisition time, an efficient acquisition process is needed to rapidly search
within the receiver FOV.

FACTORS AFFECTING FSO:

Atmospheric Losses:
 The atmospheric channel consists of various gases and other tiny particles like aerosols, dust,
smoke, etc., suspended in the atmosphere.
 Besides these, large precipitation due to rain, haze, snow, and fog is also present in the
atmosphere.
 Each of these atmospheric constituents results in the reduction of the power level, i.e.,
attenuation of optical signal due to several factors, including absorption of light by gas
molecules, Rayleigh, or Mie scattering. Various types of losses encountered by the optical beam
when propagating through the atmospheric optical channel.
Absorption and Scattering Losses
 The loss in the atmospheric channel is mainly due to absorption and scattering processes. At
visible and IR wavelengths, the principal atmospheric absorbers are the molecules of water,
carbon dioxide, and ozone.
 The attenuation experienced by the optical signal when it passes through the atmosphere can
be quantified in terms of optical depth which correlates with power at the receiver PR and the
transmitted power PT
Free-Space Loss
In an FSO communication system, the largest loss is usually due to “space loss,” i.e., the loss in the
signal strength while propagating through free space. The space loss factor is given by

;
Beam Divergence Loss

As the optical beam propagates through the atmosphere, it spreads out due to diffraction. It may result in
a situation in which the receiver aperture is not able to collect a fraction of the transmitted beam and
resulting in beam divergence loss

Loss due to Weather Conditions

 The performance of FSO link is subject to various environmental factors like fog, snow, rain, etc. that
leads to decrease in the received signal power. Out of these environmental factors, the atmospheric
attenuation is typically dominated by fog as the particle size of fog is comparable with the
wavelength of interest in FSO system.

 It can change the characteristics of the optical signal or can completely hinder th passage of light
because of absorption, scattering, and reflection. The atmospheric visibility is the useful measure for
predicting atmospheric environmental conditions.

Pointing Loss

 The loss that occurs due to imperfect alignment between transmitter and receiver is called
pointing loss. A large pointing loss can lead to intolerable signal fades and can significantly
degrade the system performance.
 It is due to the fact that the random platform jitter is generally much larger than the transmitter
beam width. Hence, a very tight acquisition, tracking, and pointing (ATP) subsystem is required
to reduce the loss due to misalignment.