Cross-layer modeling and analysis of TCP communications over turbulent FSO links.

This paper addresses the accurate characterization of the performance of transmission control protocol (TCP) for end-to-end transport services over free-space optical (FSO) links. Unlike previous works on this topic, we introduce a second-order Markovian assumption for the variation of the TCP congestion window to capture the memory from turbulence channels and further propose a Markov chain model that maps two consecutive congestion windows along time into the state space to interpret TCP operations. The analytical expression of steady-state probability distribution vector of the proposed model in general cases where relay routers exist behind the TCP connection is derived, based on which the throughput efficiency of TCP is formulated. The high accuracy of the proposed model is verified by Monte-Carlo simulations and experiments. We further analyze the impact of different link/channel parameters on the TCP performance, and discuss briefly the effectiveness of bundle protocol-based schemes for improving the performance of FSO networks from a transport layer perspective.

Multi-user access in wireless optical communication system.

In this paper, a multipoint-to-point system consisting K users and a central node over wireless optical communication (WOC) channel is analyzed. The scenario focused on is that there is simultaneous communication from a number of users to the central node. As a powerful solution, we utilize non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technique in the system. Although the superiority of NOMA in radio frequency (RF) system has been greatly considered, the NOMA in WOC still needs further research due to the special features of WOC, especially the non-broadcast nature of optical beam and the vulnerable turbulence channel. With the special features of WOC in mind, system is evaluated in terms of outage probability, bit error rate and ergodic sum rate. In addition, we theoretically prove that NOMA outperforms orthogonal multiple access (OMA), and the performance gain increases with the increase of turbulence strength. Hence, NOMA is more suitable for WOC, especially in strong turbulence channel. Moreover, we also analyze the user pairing scheme. Monte Carlo simulations have been done, which match quite well with the theoretical analysis.

Polarization coherent optical communications with adaptive polarization control over atmospheric turbulence.

In wireless optical communication systems, the coherent detection scheme suffers severe performance degradation due to the phase fluctuation and polarization offset. To deal with such challenges, we propose a polarization coherent optical communication scheme with adaptive polarization control (PCPC), where the transmitted continuous-wave light is split into two paths-the binary phase shift keying modulated signal light and the reference light-which are orthogonally polarized and combined before being sent to free space. In the receiving site, the interference between the two lights can effectively suppress the atmospheric turbulence-induced phase fluctuation. Furthermore, we propose an adaptive polarization control scheme for eliminating the polarization offset caused by the transceiver misalignment and the atmospheric turbulence. Performance evaluation of the PCPC scheme with analytical expressions and numerical simulations shows that the PCPC scheme can effectively suppress the phase fluctuation without phase-locked loop and phase tracking algorithm; thus, the PCPC scheme outperforms the traditional coherent modulation in the turbulence channel. An elaborate designed indoor experiment was implemented to verify the scheme performance, where the measured residual phase fluctuation and measured residual polarization offset are both very small, and the experimental bit error rate performance can conform closely to the theory.

Adaptive threshold decision for on-off keying transmission systems in atmospheric turbulence.

This paper investigates an adaptive threshold decision (ATD) scheme without the knowledge of channel state information (CSI) for optical wireless communication (OWC). Based on the low-pass characteristic of atmospheric turbulence channels, a low-pass filter is designed for the received signals, and the filtered signal can be employed as decision threshold. Theoretical analyses show that performance of ATD is very close to that with perfect CSI. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that the proposed scheme shows only 0.0221dB signal-to-noise (SNR) loss at most with Rytov variance of 0.05 and SNR of 21dB. An indoor experiment results are presented, which match well with that of theoretical prediction. The scheme is simple and without CSI, hence the efficient scheme makes the real-time implementation of high-speed transmissions for OWC based on ATD feasible.

Suboptimal maximum likelihood detection of on-off keying for a wireless optical communication system.

This paper investigates a detection scheme without channel state information for wireless optical communication systems. Employing conventional on-off keying signals, we supposed that conditional probability density function P(r|0) is much bigger than P(r|1) when r<0. Under this assumption, the suboptimal maximum likelihood scheme is obtained by utilizing the probability density function without channel information. Theoretical analysis shows the performance of the proposed scheme is close to the maximum likelihood symbol-by-symbol detection. Compared with the maximum likelihood symbol by symbol detection, Monte Carlo simulations show that the performance of the proposed scheme is about 0.62 dB loss for a gamma-gamma channel with a Rytov variance of 1 at the signal-to-noise ratio of 2 dB, but the efficient algorithm makes the real-time implementation of detection based on maximum likelihood feasible. Besides, the experiment is set up under 2 Gbps, and the experimental results match well with that of the theory and simulation.

Polarization property changes of optical beam transmission in atmospheric turbulent channels.

We theoretically analyze and experimentally verify the performance of multiple polarization parameters in the presence of atmospheric turbulence for a terrestrial optical transmission. First, both the first- and second-moment characteristic of polarization parameters are derived based on the extended Huygens-Fresnel principle. Then, numerical simulations are presented for different propagating distances, optical source properties, and turbulent strengths. Finally, a series of well-designed experiments are carried out to verify the theory with turbulence-controlled conditions, where the polarization states are measured at two wavelengths, respectively. As a result, the theoretical predictions conform closely to the experimental data, and both show that with the increasing turbulent strength, the first-order moment of polarization parameters varies in different trends, while their second-order moment increases. The proposed approach is promising for building a comprehensive statistical model of polarization and improving the performance of a free-space optical communication link.

Theoretical and experimental studies of polarization fluctuations over atmospheric turbulent channels for wireless optical communication systems.

In wireless optical communications (WOC), polarization multiplexing systems and coherent polarization systems have excellent performance and wide applications, while its state of polarization affected by atmospheric turbulence is not clearly understood. This paper focuses on the polarization fluctuations caused by atmospheric turbulence in a WOC link. Firstly, the relationship between the polarization fluctuations and the index of refraction structure parameter is introduced and the distribution of received polarization angle is obtained through theoretical derivations. Then, turbulent conditions are adjusted and measured elaborately in a wide range of scintillation indexes (SI). As a result, the root-mean-square (RMS) variation and probability distribution function (PDF) of polarization angle conforms closely to that of theoretical model.

An atomic optical filter working at 1.5 µm based on internal frequency stabilized laser pumping.

An excited state Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter (ES-FADOF) working at the optical communication wavelength (1.5 µm) is realized. Unlike the usual ES-FADOF schemes using an external frequency stabilization, an internal frequency stabilization scheme is proposed and the working atoms inside the filter are adopted as the reference. A particular cross line of multiple transitions is used for the frequency stabilization for the pump laser and thus, a higher pump efficiency is achieved. For example, compared with previous ES-FADOF schemes, this method can increase the transmittance from 10% to 60% at 100 °C. Moreover, in this scheme, the external frequency stabilization is not necessary and the volume of the atomic filter can be reduced. This simplifies the whole structure and a compact ES-FADOF can thus be realized.

Heterodyne efficiency of a coherent free-space optical communication model through atmospheric turbulence.

The heterodyne efficiency of a coherent free-space optical (FSO) communication model under the effects of atmospheric turbulence and misalignment is studied in this paper. To be more general, both the transmitted beam and local oscillator beam are assumed to be partially coherent based on the Gaussian Schell model (GSM). By using the derived analytical form of the cross-spectral function of a GSM beam propagating through atmospheric turbulence, a closed-form expression of heterodyne efficiency is derived, assuming that the propagation directions for the transmitted and local oscillator beams are slightly different. Then the impacts of atmospheric turbulence, configuration of the two beams (namely, beam radius and spatial coherence width), detector radius, and misalignment angle over heterodyne efficiency are examined. Numerical results suggest that the beam radius of the two overlapping beams can be optimized to achieve a maximum heterodyne efficiency according to the turbulence conditions and the detector radius. It is also found that atmospheric turbulence conditions will significantly degrade the efficiency of heterodyne detection, and compared to fully coherent beams, partially coherent beams are less sensitive to the changes in turbulence conditions and more robust against misalignment at the receiver.

A closed-form solution of the bit-error rate for optical wireless communication systems over atmospheric turbulence channels.

Atmospheric turbulence is a major limiting factor in an optical wireless communication (OWC) link. The turbulence distorts the phase of the propagating optical fields and limits the focusing capabilities of the telescope antennas. Hence, a detector array is required to capture the widespread signal energy in the focal-plane. This paper addresses the bit-error rate (BER) performance of optical wireless communication (OWC) systems employing a detector array in the presence of turbulence. Here, considering the gamma-gamma turbulence model, we propose a blind estimation scheme that provides the closed-form expression of the BER by exploiting the information of the data output of each pixel, which is based on the singular value decomposition of the sample matrix of the received signals after the code-matched filter. Instead of assuming spatially white additive noise, we consider the case where the noise spatial covariance matrix is unknown. The new method can be applied to either the single transmitter or the multi-transmitter cases. Simulation results for different Rytov variances are presented, which conform closely to the results of the proposed model.

Average spreading of a radial gaussian beam array in non-Kolmogorov turbulence.

The analytical expression for the rms beam width of the radial gaussian beam array propagating in non-Kolmogorov turbulence is derived, where the coherent combination is considered. The influences of the beam number, the generalized exponent, and the ring radius on the rms beam width are investigated. The results indicate that the rms beam width depends greatly on the generalized exponent and the beam number. Further, an optimum ring radius, which leads to a minimum beam width, is proved to exist within a certain traveling distance and the optimum ring radius increases when the beam number increases.

Weak beacon detection for air-to-ground optical wireless link establishment.

In an air-to-ground free-space optical communication system, strong background interference seriously affects the beacon detection, which makes it difficult to establish the optical link. In this paper, we propose a correlation beacon detection scheme under strong background interference conditions. As opposed to traditional beacon detection schemes, the beacon is modulated by an m-sequence at the transmitting terminal with a digital differential matched filter (DDMF) array introduced at the receiving end to detect the modulated beacon. This scheme is capable of suppressing both strong interference and noise by correlation reception of the received image sequence. In addition, the DDMF array enables each pixel of the image sensor to have its own DDMF of the same structure to process its received image sequence in parallel, thus it makes fast beacon detection possible. Theoretical analysis and an outdoor experiment have been demonstrated and show that the proposed scheme can realize fast and effective beacon detection under strong background interference conditions. Consequently, the required beacon transmission power can also be reduced dramatically.

Theoretical and experimental studies of turbo product code with time diversity in free space optical communication.

In free space optical communication (FSOC) systems, channel fading caused by atmospheric turbulence degrades the system performance seriously. However, channel coding combined with diversity techniques can be exploited to mitigate channel fading. In this paper, based on the experimental study of the channel fading effects, we propose to use turbo product code (TPC) as the channel coding scheme, which features good resistance to burst errors and no error floor. However, only channel coding cannot cope with burst errors caused by channel fading, interleaving is also used. We investigate the efficiency of interleaving for different interleaving depths, and then the optimum interleaving depth for TPC is also determined. Finally, an experimental study of TPC with interleaving is demonstrated, and we show that TPC with interleaving can significantly mitigate channel fading in FSOC systems.

Influence of beam wander on uplink of ground-to-satellite laser communication and optimization for transmitter beam radius.

We restudy the influence of beam wander on the uplink of ground-to-satellite laser communication, using the effective pointing error method, for a collimated untracked Gaussian beam under a weak atmospheric turbulence condition. It shows that the beam wander may cause significant increase in bit error rate (BER), and there exists an optimal transmitter radius for minimizing the value of BER. Further studies manifest that this optimal radius only changes with the laser wavelength and zenith angle, while independent on the satellite altitude and the fade threshold at the receiver. These results can be used in system design and optimization for the transmitter.

Note: Demonstration of an external-cavity diode laser system immune to current and temperature fluctuations.

We demonstrate an external-cavity laser system using an anti-reflection coated laser diode as gain medium with about 60 nm fluorescence spectrum, and a Rb Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter (FADOF) as frequency-selecting element with a transmission bandwidth of 1.3 GHz. With 6.4% optical feedback, a single stable longitudinal mode is obtained with a linewidth of 69 kHz. The wavelength of this laser is operating within the center of the highest transmission peak of FADOF over a diode current range from 55 mA to 142 mA and a diode temperature range from 15 °C to 35 °C, thus it is immune to the fluctuations of current and temperature.