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Comparison the Performance of Free-Space Optical Communication with OOK

and BPSK Modulation under Atmospheric Turbulence

Article  in  International Journal of Engineering Science · May 2011

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 Bobby Barua / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

Comparison the Performance of Free-Space Optical

Communication with OOK and BPSK Modulation
under Atmospheric Turbulence
BOBBY BARUA
Assistant Professor, Department of EEE,
Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology
Dhaka, Bangladesh
e-mail- bobby@aust.edu

Abstract

Free-space optical communications (FSO) propagated over a clear atmosphere suffers from irradiance
fluctuation caused by small but random atmospheric temperature fluctuations. This results in decreased signal-
to-noise ratio and consequently impaired performance. In this paper, the bit error rate (BER) performance of
free space optical (FSO) communication systems employing on-off keying (OOK) or subcarrier binary phase-
shift keying (BPSK) modulation are derived. To evaluate the system error performance in turbulence regimes
from weak to strong, the probability density function (pdf) of the received irradiance after traversing the
atmosphere is modelled using the gamma-gamma distribution while the negative exponential distribution is used
to model turbulence in the saturation region and beyond. The improvement is different for different turbulence
strengths and modulation formats. In addition, the BER performance of communication systems employing
subcarrier BPSK modulation is much better than that of compatible systems employing OOK modulation.

Keywords—Atmospheric turbulence, diversity, free-space optics (FSO), gamma-gamma distribution, negative

exponential distribution, subcarrier modulation, on-off keying (OOK), binary phase-shift keying (BPSK).

1. Introduction

Free-space optical (FSO) communication is an attractive and cost-effective solution for high-rate image, voice,
and data transmission [1]. It has received significant attention recently, as a possible alternative to solve the
bottleneck connectivity problem, and as a supplement to more conventional RF/microwave links. Propagating
data-laden laser radiation over the atmosphere termed FSO communications is attractive for a number of reasons
including unlicensed spectrum and a narrow beamwidth [2,3]. It offers data rates comparable to optical fiber
communications but at a fraction of its deployment cost. Further more, its extremely narrow laser beam width
offers spatial multiplexing and multiple links capabilities in a given location. The transmitted optical beam
traversing the atmosphere can be absorbed, scattered or displaced depending on the atmospheric condition, thus
setting the fundamental limits of FSO systems. Compared with the RF system, FSO is less affected by snow and
rain, but can be severely affected by the atmospheric turbulence and fog. The attenuation coefficient typically
ranges from a few dB/km in a clear atmosphere to ~270 dB/km in a dense fog regime [4]. The huge attenuation
suffered during dense fog restricts the carrier class FSO links to ~500 m [5, 6]; extending the link range in such
conditions requires alternative schemes such as hybrid RF/FSO [7, 8]. Another factor that accounts for the FSO
performance degradation in a clear atmosphere is the irradiance fluctuation (scintillation) and the phase
fluctuation, which result from random index of refraction variations along the propagation path due to the
atmospheric turbulence [3, 9, 10]. The On-Off keying (OOK) signaling format has been widely used in the
commercially available FSO systems. But in channels with the atmospheric turbulence induced fading, the OOK
scheme requires adaptive threshold to perform optimally [11, 12]. This fact among others has led to the
increased interest in the study of SIM in FSO systems [12-14]. It has also been shown that using a fixed
threshold OOK scheme results in suboptimal system, which is not only inferior to a SIM modulated FSO link
but also has a BER floor [15]. Although an on-off keying (OOK) intensity modulated based FSO link is widely
reported, its major challenge lies in the fact that it requires adaptive threshold to perform optimally in
atmospheric turbulence condition [8], [9], [10]. In this paper, turbulence channels are described by the gamma–
gamma probability distribution and then we derive the BER performance of FSO communication system with
OOK or subcarrier BPSK modulation. A decision criterion is developed to obtain an optimal threshold for OOK
modulation under various turbulent conditions. To circumvent this implementation difficulty and to ameliorate
turbulence induced irradiance fluctuation, we consider in this paper the SIM that is based on the BPSK scheme.
The atmospheric turbulence across weak to strong regime is modeled using the gamma-gamma distribution [13],

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[16], [17] while negative exponential turbulence model is used in the limit of strong turbulence. And the noise,
which is modelled as additive white Gaussian comprises of both the background radiation and the thermal noise.

2. System Model

(a)

(b)
Fig. 1. (a) The block diagram of OOK system. and (b) block diagram of subcarrier BPSK system

Block diagram of Fig. 1 depicts the physical system under study. Fig. 1(a). shows the block diagram of OOK
system and Fig. 1(b) represent the block diagram of subcarrier BPSK system. For both cases, the laser beam-
widths are narrow, but sufficiently wide to illuminate the entire PD array. For example, if the half- power beam-
width is 10 mrads, the half-power spot size at distance 1 km has diameter 10 m. However, to exploit all
potentials of FSO communication systems, the designers have to overcome some of the major challenges related
to the optical wave propagation through the atmosphere. Namely, an optical wave propagating through the air
experiences fluctuations in amplitude and phase due to atmospheric turbulence. In Fig. 1 (a) the transmitter
modulates data onto the instantaneous intensity of an optical beam. First we consider intensity modulated direct
detection channels using OOK modulation, which is widely employed in practical systems. The received
photocurrent signal is related to the incident optical power by the detector responsivity R. It is assumed that the
receiver integrates the photocurrent for each bit period and removes any constant bias due to background
illumination. The received signal y suffers from a fluctuation in signal intensity due to atmospheric turbulence
and misalignment, as well as additive noise, and can be well modeled as

y = hRx + n (1)

where x is the transmitted intensity, h is the channel state, y is the resulting electrical signal, and n is signal-
independent additive white Gaussian noise with variance σ n2 .
Again in Fig 1 (b) an optical communication system employing intensity modulation through turbulent
atmosphere. For an optical communication system employing subcarrier BPSK intensity modulation, the data
sequence is first modulated with BPSK, which can be implemented with existing microchips at very low cost.
Secondly, the BPSK signal is upconverted to an intermediate frequency (IF). Then, the modulated electrical
signal is utilized to control the irradiance of optical beam in the transmitter. In the receiver, the optical signal is
firstly converted to an electrical signal. Then, the receiver demodulates the electrical signal by using RF devices
like selective filters and stable oscillators. At the receiver the received optical intensity P(t) can be written as
P ( t ) = I ( t ) P0 ( t ) + n ( t ) (2)

where P0(t) is the received optical intensity without turbulence, and n(t) ~ N(0,σn2 ) is the additive white
Gaussian noise (AWGN). I(t) is a stationary random process representing the intensity gain induced by
atmospheric turbulence, its probability density function (PDF) is given by Eq. (1). Because atmospheric

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turbulence is considered as a spatial noise that degrades the optical wave signal, a transverse spectral filter, i.e.,
the AO filter, can be used to filter out this spatial noise. The AO filter function is derived from the Fourier
transforms of Zernike polynomials. Large-scale and small-scale log-irradiance variances with tip-tilt
components correction are written as [4]

8π 2 k 2
L ∞ 2π
  k 2 z 
    1 − F ( k , D , ϕ )  d kd zd ϕ
σ ln2 x , t − rem o v ed = k φ n ( k ) G x ( k ) 1 − co s  (3)
2π 0 0 0   k 

8π 2 k 2
L ∞ 2π
  k 2 z 
σ ln2 y , t − rem oved =   k φ n ( k ) G y ( k ) 1 − cos    1 − F ( k , D , ϕ )  dkdzd ϕ
(4)
2π 0 0 0   k 

In the above equations, [1 – F(k , D, φ)] is the tip-tilt AO filter function that operates on the transverse spatial
spectrum (k dependence) and represents the removal of tip-tilt aberration modes by phase conjugation. D is the
receiving aperture diameter and F(k, D, φ ) is given by

F x ( k , D , ϕ ) cos2 ϕ

2
 4 J 2 (kD / 2)   (5)
F y ( k , D , ϕ ) =    s i n ϕ
2

  kD / 2 
F (k , D , ϕ )   1
where Jn + 1 is the Bessel function.

3. Channel Modeling with Gamma-Gamma Model

The gamma-gamma turbulence model is based on the modulation process where the fluctuation of light
radiation traversing turbulent atmosphere is assume to consist of small scale (scattering) and large scale
(refraction) effects. The former is contributed by the eddies cells smaller than the Fresnel zone or the coherence
radius while the latter effect is due to the turbulence eddies greater than the first Fresnel zone or the scattering
disk [17]. The small scale eddies are assumed to be modulated by the large scale eddies. Consequently, the
received irradiance is defined as the product of two statistically independent random processes Ix and Iy , that is
I=IxIy (6)

Ix and Iy arise from the large scale and small scale turbulent eddies respectively. The gamma-gamma model for
the probability density function (pdf) of received irradiance fluctuation which is based on the assumption that
both the large and small scale effects are governed by the gamma distribution is therefore given by[9],
(α + β )
2 (α β ) ( α + β ) / 2 −1
(7)
f (I ) = I 2
K ( α − β ) ( 2 α β I ), I > 0
Γ (α ) Γ ( β )

where I is the signal intensity, α and β are parameters of the p.d.f, Г is the gamma function, and Kα−β is the
modified Bessel function of the second kind of order α−β. Here, α and β are the effective number of small-
scale and large scale eddies of the scattering environment. These parameters can be directly related to
atmospheric turbulence is as[9],

1
, 1
(8)
α = β =
 0 . 4 9 σ R2   0 . 5 1σ R2 
exp  12 /5 7 /6 
−1 exp  12 /5 5/6 
−1
 (1 + 1 . 1 1 σ R )   (1 + 0 . 6 9 σ R ) 

Based on the atmosphere turbulence model adopted here and assuming strong turbulence, we can obtain
the approximate analytic expression for the covariance of the log-amplitude fluctuation of plane and
spherical waves which is also known as Rytov variance, given by[9],

σR2 =1.23C n 2 k7/6L11/6 (9)

where Cn2 is the wave number spectrum structure parameter and depends on the altitude.

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4. Bit Error Rate Analysis

4.1. Theoretical analysis of BER Using OOK Modulation Format

In this modulation format, the received electrical signal can be written as

∞
r (t ) = I (t ) + 
i = −∞
I ( t ) a i g ( t − iT s ) + n ( t ) (10)

where ai is the level of the i-th symbol and ai ∈–1, 1} , the transmission probabilities of bit –1 and 1 are P0
and P1, respectively; g(t) is the rectangle pulse shape function and Ts is the symbol time. When there is no
turbulence and only AWGN is present, the BER can be written as [14]

1  Eb  (11)
Pe = e r f c  
2  2 σ n2 

∞
where Eb= ai 2=1is the normalized bit energy, e r fc ( x ) = 2 . In decibels, the signal-to-
 exp(−t
2
/ 2)dt
π x

noise ratio (SNR) can be defined as

E  (12)
S N R ( d B ) = 1 0 lo g  2b 
σn 

As the transmitted signal corresponding to bit “0” is zero, the received signal for this bit will have only AWGN.
However, both turbulence noise and AWGN are present for bit “1”. So, the signal currents for bit “0” and
“1”can be written as

 n (t ), ai = −1 (13)
r (t ) = 
 2 I (t ) + n (t ), ai = 1

Let the variance of n(t) and I(t) be σn2and σI2 , respectively. The PDF of the converted electrical signal when bit
“0” or “1” is sent is given by (x > 0):

1  r2  (14)
p (r | 0) = exp  − 2 
2π σ n  2σ n 

According to the optimal maximum a posteriori (MAP) symbol-by-symbol detection with equiprobable OOK
data [6, 9], the likelihood function is given by:

p ( r | 1) 2(α β ) ( α + β ) / 2
∞ (α + β )
−1  4 x( x − r) 
Λ (r ) =
p ( r | 0)
=
Γ (α ) Γ ( β ) x
0
2
K ( α − β ) (2 α β x ) exp  −
 2σ n2 
 dx (15)

It is noteworthy that Eqs. (14) and (15) are also presented in a more compact form [6] based on the log-normal
distribution model. In Eq. (15), the threshold T is given by the value of r that satisfies the equation ∧(r) = 1,
which can be numerically calculated according to different Rytov variances σ12 and σn2noise variances .

4.2. Theoretical analysis of BER Using Subcarrier BPSK Modulation Format

For subcarrier BPSK intensity modulation, the output electrical signal is given by [14]

r (t ) = I (t ) + mI (t )  si (t ) cos(2π f c t ) − sq (t ) sin(2π f c t )  + ni (t ) cos(2π f c t ) − nq (t ) sin(2π f c t ) (16)

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 Bobby Barua / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

where si(t) and sq(t) are the in-phase and quadrature signals, respectively, m is the modulation index with m
∈ (0, 1], and fc is the intermediate carrier frequency; ni(t) and nq(t) are the narrow band white Gaussian
processes with the variance σn2. For subcarrier BPSK modulation format, the threshold is chosen at 0, i.e., T = 0.
The conditional PDF p(r | x) of the received signal can be written as

 α +β

 2  αβ  2
∞ α +β
−1 αβ t   (r − t )2 

 2π σ n Γ (α ) Γ ( β )  m 

t 2
K α − β  2
m 
 exp  −
 2σ n2 
 dt , x = +1

p (r | x ) =  (17)
0
α +β
 2  αβ  2
∞ α +β
−1  αβ t   (r + t )2 
 
 2π σ n Γ (α ) Γ ( β )  m


t 2
K α − β  2
m 
 exp  −
 2σ n2 
 dt , x = −1
0 

and its BER in the atmospheric environment is given by

α +β
(αβ ) ∞ α +β
 mx 
( )
2 −1

Γ (α ) Γ ( β ) 
Pe = x 2
K α − β 2 αβ x e rfc   dx (18)
0  2σ n 

Without turbulence and in the presence of AWGN only, the BER is given by [14]

1  m2 
Pe = erfc   (19)
2  2σ n2 
 
Without loss of generality, here m = 1 is assumed.

5. Simulation Results and Discussion

The system described above is simulated using Matlab. In the simulation, the pulse shaping function is assumed
to be rectangular and the amplitude{ ac1,ac2} of each subcarrier signal is obtained from 1/2ξ. The simulation
parameters are given in Table I.

Parameters Values

Data rate 1Mbps

1st Carrier frequency 4MHz

2nd Carrier frequency 8MHz

Sampling frequency 20 MHz

Laser wavelength λ 850nm

PIN photodetector responsivity R 2

Optical modulation index ξ 1

Lognormal variance σ i
2
0.1 ≤ σ i2 ≤ 6.0

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 Bobby Barua / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

Fig2. Distribution of intensity fluctuation for several values of the turbulence strength under Gamma-gamma Model.

The plots of the probability density function in Fig. 2 for gamma gamma cases with several typical values of
turbulence strength σ(x). In particular, notice the gamma-gamma model has a much higher density in the high
amplitude region, leading to a more severe impact on system performance.

Fig. 3. The BER is plotted as a function of the SNR by using a fixed threshold.

Fig. 3 shows the plots of BER versus SNR under OOK and BPSK modulation format by using a fixed threshold.
From the figure, it is clear that BPSK perform better than OOK modulation technique by using a fixed
threshold, which is chosen as half of the mean of received signal corresponding to bit 1. A comparison between
BER under variable turbulence strength for the OOK modulation format are shown in Fig. 4

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Fig. 4. Variation of BER versus SNR with different turbulence strength using OOK modulation technique

From the Fig.4, it is found that the optimal threshold can significantly optimize the performances of
communication systems by significantly reducing the BER of systems. For example, when σ12 =0.2, the BER of
OOK is more than 10–2 and does not almost change with increasing SNR.

Fig. 5. Variation of BER versus SNR with different turbulence strength using BPSK modulation technique

In order to show the effect of scintillation and noise on the system performance using BPSK modulation
technique, we are looking at the BER metric and fading penalty under different channel conditions. Fig.5 shows
the plots of such. From the figure, it is clear that the optimal threshold can significantly optimize the
performances of communication systems by significantly reducing the BER of systems.

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Fig. 6. The BER performance of FSO communication systems employing OOK and subcarrier BPSK
modulation format

The comparative studies of the BER performances with OOK and BPSK modulation under turbulent condition
using gamma-gamma model are carried out and demonstrated in Fig. 6. It is mentioned that in both modulation,
their error performance is similar but the fading penalty at the variance level is much higher for OOK.
6. Conclusions

The BER expression for FSO communication systems employing OOK or subcarrier BPSK modulation format
through turbulence channels are analyzed in this paper. Here the atmospheric channels are treated using gamma-
gamma model. The difference in the performance is attributable to the difference in the methods of representing
information signals on the optical carrier. The received irradiance of OOK represents digital information and
any fluctuation in the irradiance increases the error probability. However, information is transmitted by
modulating the sub carrier phase in BPSK, which is less affected by the irradiance fluctuation. From the overall
analysis, it is clear that the BER improvement of subcarrier BPSK modulation format is much more than that of
OOK for all range of turbulence variance.

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