Estimation of BER for a PSK OFDM RoFSO Link with Relays Over

Exponentially Modeled Turbulence Channels with Pointing Errors

M.P. Ninos1, H.E. Nistazakis1,*, A.N. Stassinakis1, Ch. K. Volos2,
I.M. Kyprianidis2, I.N. Stouboulos2 and G.S. Tombras1
1:

Department of Electronics, Computers, Telecommunications and Control, Faculty of Physics,

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, 15784, Greece
e-mails: {ninmichail; enistaz; a-stasinakis; gtombras}@phys.uoa.gr.

2:

Physics Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

e-mails: {volos; imkypr; stouboulos}@physics.auth.gr

Abstract
We investigate the performance of a RoFSO system which is using the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme with (PSK) modulation and decode and forward (DF) relay node(s). The
irradiance fluctuations of the optical signal at the receiver are modeled accurately, with the negative exponential distribution and additionally, we are taking into account the pointing errors of the laser beam at
the receiver due to the misalignment of the trans-receiver system and the nonlinear characteristics of the transmitters laser diode, as well. For such a RoFSO PSK OFDM we evaluate the (BER) performance
metric.

Introduction
The free space optical (FSO) communication systems have
been gaining popularity due to their high performance
capabilities along with their ease of deployment, lower
power consumption without the need of fiber cable
infrastructure and installation license. On the other hand,
their efficiency is affected significantly by the atmospheric
conditions. The propagation of the optical beam through
the atmosphere is impaired by the absorption and
scattering processes leading to the attenuation of the
received signal strength. Another important mitigation
effect related to the specific path transmission is the
turbulence-induced scintillations which results in lower
performance characteristics for FSO system, [1]-[12].

The FSO links need an unobstructed line of sight for

transferring data between the transmitting and receiving
terminals. Thus, a very well aligned trans-receiver system is
a requirement to implement a reliable and effective
communication link. However, small movements of the
transmitter due to wind loads, building sway, etc., can
cause deflections of the optical beam from the aligned
position leading to additional signal fading, [10].
These effects imposed constraints on the effective range of
the free space transmission, rendering the usage of
repeaters indispensable in order to increase the links
length. Multihop architectures are implemented using
either amplify and forward (AF) or decode and forward

relay (DF) relay nodes, [11],[12].

The Radio-on-FSO (RoFSO) is a similar configuration to the
radio over fiber (RoF) links where the signal is conveyed
through the atmosphere. RoFSO can be used either as
alternative or complementary to the fiber cable network
as a high capacity wireless backhaul technology for cellular
networks, [3],[4],[12].
For this relayed optical communication setup closed form
mathematical expressions are derived for the estimation of
the systems performance by means of its average BER.
Moreover, numerical results are illustrated for realistic
parameter values of the PSK OFDM RoFSO link.

Channel Model
OFDM and CNDR
The whole optical communication system consists of a transmitter, a
number of serial DF relay nodes and a receiver, as depicted in the
block diagram. The orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
(OFDM) scheme is used for the signal transmission. The OFDM signal,
which modulates the optical intensity of the laser diode, after the upconversion to the carrier frequency fc is given as, [4], [12]:

s t X

exp in 2f c t

for 0 t Ts

n 0

n 0

where I0=LtotPtI is the dc of the received photocurrent i(t,I), mn is the

optical modulation index (OMI), Ltot being the total losses, is the
PDs responsivity, while nopt is the AWGN with zero mean and
variance N0/2, with N0=4KBTF/RL+2qI0+I02(RIN), [4], [12]. Thus, the
received instantaneous carrier to noise plus distortion for each
subcarrier of the OFDM, CNDRn, is given as, [4], [12]:
CNDRn I

mn Ltot Pt I 2

2 N 0 Ts n2, IMD

Node
2

.
.
.

SOFDM (t)

Laser
Diode

Node
1

Transmitter

The Total Average BER of the RoFSO link with Relays

By assuming that each one of the N-subcarriers of an OFDM system is
modulated with PSK and Gray code mapping at the transmitter with
AWGN, the total BER of each point to point link is given approximately
N 1
as, [12]:

N 1

Pb,l
erfc CNDRn,l I sin
(9)

log K
K

Detector

FFT

Symbol
Detection

P/S

Data

n 0

where K is the constellation number of the PSK. By averaging over the

NE turbulence with pointing errors we obtain the average BER for each
single RoFSO link as, [12]:
Pb,l , Av

N 1 N 1

erfc CNDRn ,l I sin f comb, I ( I )dI

log 2 K n 0 0
K

(10)

The total average BER of the whole optical communication system

error rate is functionally related to the received signal irradiance which is comprised of L individual hops can be estimated from [11],
which for relatively short distances fluctuates randomly, and thus [12], through the relation:
L
L

follows a probability distribution fIt(It). Here, we are using the NE,

Pb,tot, Av Pb,l , Av 1 2 Pb,m, Av

which is convenient for saturate atmospheric conditions. The PDF of

(11)
l 1
m l 1

the NE distribution as a function It is given as, [9],[12]:

the closed form mathematical expression for the average BER of a
multi-hop PSK OFDM RoFSO with DF relays, over NE turbulence, is:
f I I t exp I t
(6)
L
L N 1
N 1

N 1 2
N 1 2

Apart from the turbulence effect, the misalignment of the optical

Pb,tot, Av
n,m
(12)
n,l 1

2 log 2 K l 1
log 2 K n0

0
m

beam between the transmitter and the receiver inserts additional

signal fading. The misalignment fading or pointing errors effect is
1 2 2 2

expressed through the following probability density function, [10]:

,
,0, 0.5 ,1
2, 4
.
2
2
2

where,

n ,l
5, 4
2
2
f I (I p )
I p 1
with 0 I p A0

(7)
A0
0, 0.5 , ,

2
2

we derive the following closed form mathematical expression for

the combined PDF:
2
2 2,0 I
f com b, I I
G1, 2
(8)
2

(4)
where 2n,IMD is the third order inter-modulation distortion factor due
to the nonlinear laser diode LD:

1 1

2 2nN n 1 N N 5 2
2

2
IMD ,n

FFT

(2)

while the photo-induced current at the photo detector PD is given

as, [4], [12]:
3
N 1
N

(3)
it , I I 0 1 mn sn t a3 mn sn t nopt t

Node
L-1

.
.
.

3
N 1
N 1

Pt Pt 1
mn sn t a3 mn sn t

n 0
n 0

.
.
.

DF Relay nodes

(1)
n 0
n 0
where, n=2n/Ts, n=0,, N-1, is the frequency of each orthogonal
subcarrier, Ts is the duration of the OFDM symbols and Xn is the
complex data symbol of the nth subcarrier which is mapped with KPSK modulation. The transmitted optical power is given as [4], [12]:
n

S/P

K-PSK
Mapping

.
.
.

.
.
.

N 1

Data

.
.
.

sOFDM t

N 1

OFDM

where Wz ,eq 2 S [8]. The Wz,eq is the equivalent beam width and is
estimated through the expressions, Wz2,eq erf Wz2 2 exp 2 ,
r 2Wz , A0 erf 2 . The parameters r and Wz represent the
radius of the circular detection aperture at the receiver and the waist of
the beams Gaussian spatial intensity profile, respectively, [10].

2 N n

(5)

Turbulence and Pointing Errors

The main mitigation factor for the performance of optical wireless
communications is the turbulence-induced scintillations. The bit

A0

A0 1, 0

Numerical Results

The number of subcarriers, N, is chosen equal to 1000 or 2000. The is 0.8 A/W, the transmitted optical power is Pt =20 dBm and the total losses for each individual link are Ltot =-10 dB, respectively. The RL =50 , the
relative intensity noise, RIN=-130 dB/Hz, the absolute temperature is T=300 K and a3=910-4, [3], [4], [12]. Furthermore, the r= 0.05 m and the calculations were implemented with the two ratios of s/r i.e. 0.1, 0.4 and
for wz/r=1.5. These two values of the ratio s/r, correspond to different strength of the pointing errors effect. Finally the length of each individual link is 2km, and the total link length for L=2 is 4km while for L=3 is 6 km.
Conclusions
According to the system configuration new closed form
expressions are derived for the average BER metric evaluation of
each individual link and for the whole multi-hop optical system, as
well. The numerical results are illustrated for representative
values of the wireless optical system, taking into account the
atmospheric turbulence, the pointing errors and the number of
individual links which comprises. It is apparent that the increase
in pointing errors deteriorates the BER performance, a case that is
repeated for the increase in the number of individual links, which
corresponds to a proportional increment of the total length, i.e.
longer link length, of the multihop optical communication system.

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