Analysis of fog and smoke attenuation in a free space optical communication link under controlled laboratory conditions

In this paper, the attenuation of free space optical (FSO) communication systems operating at selected wavelengths of 0.83 μm, 1.31 μm and 1.55 μm in the controlled laboratory based fog and smoke environments are compared. The fog and smoke are generated and controlled homogeneously along the indoor atmospheric chamber of length 6 m. The experimental results from the selected wavelengths are compared for the continuous spectrum range (0.6 μm < λ < 1.55 μm) attenuation. The results show that, unlike the fog attenuation, the resultant smoke attenuation linearly decreases from the visible towards the near infrared (NIR) range from dense to light smoke conditions.