Assessment of FOG and Rain Induced-Attenuation on Terrestrial FSO Links

Abstract

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Launching into the next generation of wireless communication network (5G network) requires secure high data rate, high speed and huge bandwidth links. With the tremendous increase in broadband users, the existing communication systems such as radio frequency (RF) and microwave links cannot meet up with the challenges due to their link interference and low bandwidth. A current technology that promises such requirements and more is Free Space Optical (FSO) communication. The FSO basically involves the transmission of signal-modulated optical radiation from a transmitter to a receiver through the atmosphere or outer space. It is designed to complement the traditional fibre optical communication links. However, location-variant atmospheric channel degrades the quality and performance of an FSO system under severe atmospheric conditions. This paper attempts to assess both fog- and rain-induced attenuation on the performance of FSO link in a terrestrial terrain using measured visibility and rain rate data at Akure, Nigeria. 5-year (2012-2016) archived visibility data and measured rain rate data of 1-minute integration time obtained from Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Akure respectively, were used to compute the fog- and rain-induced specific attenuations using Kruse and Carboneur models. The performance of the FSO system was analyzed through link margin by using the parameters of a commercial optical transceiver, Terescope 5000. Findings from this work will be useful for FSO system design in the area.