Simulation-assisted design of free space optical transmission systems

Free space optics (FSO) is widely regarded as the next-generation high-speed wireless communication technology, and due to the security and high data rates is being considered for military systems. The availability of simulation tools for FSO systems may help in engineering trade-off and optimization studies, in shortening the design-to-deployment cycle, and hence in reducing the cost. We present the first computer-aided design tool for system-level simulation of complete FSO communication systems. The free-space channel model assumes the weak-turbulence approximation and is based on log-normal statistics for signal fading. The results of simulations for typical FSO links are shown and discussed