On The Tradeoffs of FSO Communications in UAV Networks Under Varying Weather Conditions

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are having increasing importance in various application areas. Therefore, efficient communication between UAVs, and between UAVs and ground stations or base stations (BSs), is essential. Free space optics (FSO) are being more frequently used as communication technology for UAVs, in addition to radio frequency (RF) communications. However, several challenges are faced by FSO, including maintaining a line of sight (LoS) between sender and receiver, in addition to sensitivity to adverse weather conditions. In this paper, we consider FSO communications in UAV networks, and analyze achievable data rates across various distances and under varying weather conditions. The results show that efficient tradeoffs can be achieved between data rates, transmit power, inter-UAV distance, and the performance can be adapted to different weather conditions.