Mode Division Multiplexed Terrestrial Radio-Over-Free Space Optics Transmission: Performance Analysis Under Weather Attenuation

Mode division multiplexed (MDM) transmission systems have gathered significant attraction of the communication engineers as a result of their high data transmission capacity and enhanced spectral efficient data transportation in optical fiber links. On the other hand, radio-over-free space optics (RoFSO) transmission scheme offers ample amount of advantages including quick deploy-ability, inexpensive installation process, and low power requirement, etc. for last-mile access wireless information transmission. We demonstrate a MDM-enabled RoFSO transmission setup, which deploys 2-distinct Laguerre-Gaussian modes to transmit 2-individual 10 Gbit/s-10 GHz data signals to realize a net transmission of 20 Gbit/s-20 GHz on a single laser beam. Further, we investigate the performance of the proposed setup under the adverse effects of atmospheric weather attenuation. A reliable 20 Gbit/s-20 GHz transmission is achieved for 800 m - 8 km free space transmission range with good performance.