Free-space optical channel characterization and experimental validation in a coastal environment

Over the years, free-space optical (FSO) communication has attracted considerable research interest owing to its high transmission rates via the unbounded and unlicensed bandwidths. Nevertheless, various weather conditions lead to significant deterioration of the FSO link capabilities. In this context, we report on the modelling of the channel attenuation coefficient (β) for a coastal environment and related ambient, considering the effect of coastal air temperature (T), relative humidity (R_H) and dew point (T_D) by employing a mobile FSO communication system capable of achieving a transmission rate of 1 Gbps at an outdoor distance of 70 m for optical beam wavelengths of 1310 nm and 1550 nm. For further validation of the proposed models, an indoor measurement over a 1.5 m distance utilizing 1310 nm, 1550 nm, and 1064 nm lasers was also performed. The first model provides a general link between T and β, while the second model provides a relation between β, R_H as well as T_D. By validating our attenuation coefficient model with actual outdoor and indoor experiments, we obtained a scaling parameter x and decaying parameter c values of 19.94, 40.02, 45.82 and 0.03015, 0.04096, 0.0428 for wavelengths of 1550, 1310, 1064 nm, respectively. The proposed models are well validated over the large variation of temperature and humidity over the FSO link in a coastal region and emulated indoor environment.