Search

The availability of Channel State Information (CSI) and the effects of channel memory on the capacities and the achievable rates of free-space optical communication channels are investigated. For memoryless channels, the capacities and achievable rates are computed and compared for both uniform and ldquopositiverdquo Gaussian inputs subject to different assumptions on the CSI availability. For the strong turbulence regime, it is shown that the knowledge of CSI both at the transmitter and the receiver increases the achievable rates for low-to-moderate Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNRs) in comparison to the cases for which the CSI is known only at the receiver. For the weak turbulence regime however, the availability of CSI at both ends of the link does not provide any improvement over a system with CSI known at the receiver alone, and we find that a simple channel inversion technique suffices. In addition, for low SNRs, Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) with M ges 4 levels outperforms Gaussian-distributed inputs regardless of the knowledge of CSI at the transmitter. For high SNRs, a Gaussian distribution gives superior results, implying the need for new, more efficient positive signal constellations. For channels with memory and without knowledge of CSI, a change in the channel quasifrequency has negligible effects on the capacity for any turbulence regime. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, coded multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communication schemes for data transmission over the optical atmospheric turbulence channels are studied. Two strategies are proposed and compared. The first is based on repetition coding, and the second on space-time (ST) coding. Both approaches employ low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. The LDPC codes are designed using the concept of pairwise balanced design (PBD), balanced incomplete block design (BIBBD), and block-circulant (array) codes. To improve the spectral efficiency, we employ a bit-interleaved (BI) LDPC-coded modulation based on the pulse amplitude modulation (PAM). A better bit error rate (BER) performance is achieved by the iteration of extrinsic information between a demapper and LDPC decoder. The simulations show that the LDPC-coded MIMO schemes can operate under a strong atmospheric turbulence and at the same time provide excellent coding gains compared with the transmission of uncoded data. To verify the efficiency of the proposed coding schemes, achievable information rates are computed when the turbulence is modeled by a gamma-gamma distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]