Capacity estimation of optical wireless communication systems over moderate to strong turbulence channels

Abstract

Optical wireless communication (OWC) systems are rapidly gaining popularity as effective means of transferring data at high rates over short distances. OWC facilitates rapidly deployable, lightweight, high-capacity communication without licensing fees and tariffs. Nevertheless, the performance of this new technology depends strongly on the atmospheric conditions and the characteristics of the link. In this work, we study the influence of these parameters on both the average (ergodic) capacity and the outage capacity of an OWC system over moderate to strong turbulence channels modeled by gamma-gamma distribution. Moreover, we compare the results that we obtain estimating the average and outage capacities.