Coded On Off Keying System For Free Space Optical Link over Strong Turbulence and Misalignment Fading Channels

Abstract

The presence of turbulence and aiming error effects degrades the performance of optical wireless systems significantly. Error control coding techniques are frequently proposed to fulfil common bit error rate (BER) requirements for reliable communications within practical signal-to-noise ratio limits. Through symbol by symbol interleaved channels characterised by high turbulence and/or pointing error effects, we study the error performance of convolutional coded on-off keying free-space optical systems. We investigate a variety of channel types and obtain precise analytical equations for pairwise error probability. Using the transfer function approach, these formulas are used to derive upper constraints on BER performance.