Free Space Optical Relaying via an Energy Harvesting Harvest-Store-Use Buffer-Aided Relay

This paper considers a free space optical (FSO) cooperative network with an energy harvesting (EH) relay with no permanent power supply. The relay implements the harvest-store-use strategy and, in addition to the energy buffer, it is equipped with a data buffer where the incoming packets are queued pending more favorable transmission conditions or the accumulation of more energy. Through an elaborate numerical analysis, we highlight on the limitations of the basic form of the relevant relaying strategy and suggest potential improvements. Results demonstrate reduced outage probabilities and improved management of energy and data buffers.