A modified model of the atmospheric effects on the performance of FSO links employing single and multiple receivers.

In free space optical (FSO) communication links, atmospheric effects including absorption, scattering and turbulence have significant impacts on the quality of the laser beam propagating through the free space channel. Absorption and/or scattering due to the atmospheric particles result in optical losses, whereas turbulence contributes to the intensity scintillation which can severely impair the operation of FSO links. In this paper, using a modified model we analyze the atmospheric effects on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the bit error rate (BER) performance of an FSO system. We show that for multiple detectors with the same surface area as a single detector there is a critical link range less than which the SNR decreases for larger values of M. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]