Performance Analysis of Free-Space Optical Links Over M\'{a}laga ($\mathcal{M}$) Turbulence Channels with Pointing Errors

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of free-space optical links over Málaga turbulence channels, deriving unified closed-form expressions for key performance metrics considering pointing errors and different detection methods.

Contribution

It introduces unified exact closed-form formulas for the SNR distribution and performance metrics of FSO links over Málaga turbulence, including new asymptotic expressions in high and low SNR regimes.

Findings

Closed-form expressions for outage probability and error rates.

Asymptotic formulas for high and low SNR regimes.

Validation of results via Monte-Carlo simulations.

Abstract

In this work, we present a unified performance analysis of a free-space optical (FSO) link that accounts for pointing errors and both types of detection techniques (i.e. intensity modulation/direct detection (IM/DD) as well as heterodyne detection). More specifically, we present unified exact closed-form expressions for the cumulative distribution function, the probability density function, the moment generating function, and the moments of the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a single link FSO transmission system, all in terms of the Meijer's G function except for the moments that is in terms of simple elementary functions. We then capitalize on these unified results to offer unified exact closed-form expressions for various performance metrics of FSO link transmission systems, such as, the outage probability, the scintillation index (SI), the average error rate for binary and $M$-ary modulation schemes, and the ergodic capacity (except for IM/DD technique, where we present closed-form lower bound results), all in terms of Meijer's G functions except for the SI that is in terms of simple elementary functions. Additionally, we derive the asymptotic results for all the expressions derived earlier in terms of Meijer's G function in the high SNR regime in terms of simple elementary functions via an asymptotic expansion of the Meijer's G function. We also derive new asymptotic expressions for the ergodic capacity in the low as well as high SNR regimes in terms of simple elementary functions via utilizing moments. All the presented results are verified via computer-based Monte-Carlo simulations.