Atmospheric turbulence effects on the performance of multigigabit downlink PPM laser communications

Arun K. Majumdar; William C. Brown

doi:10.1117/12.18217

1 July 1990 Atmospheric turbulence effects on the performance of multigigabit downlink PPM laser communications

Arun K. Majumdar, William C. Brown

Proceedings Volume 1218, Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies II; (1990) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.18217
Event: OE/LASE '90, 1990, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Abstract

Atmospheric turbulence effects on multigigabit/s data rate, pulse-position modulation (PPM) laser downlinks are examined for M = 4 or less using laser transmitter power of 100 mW to 1 W. From the impulse response curves, it is shown that the pulse spreading can be about 5 ps for strong turbulence and about 0.05 ps for weak turbulence. Thus in clear air turbulence without clouds and fog, the contribution from the stretching of a short pulse of 50 ps width will be negligible in both strong and weak turbulence. The high-data rate communication system performance is analyzed in terms of a BER using a thermalized equation derived here. It is concluded that, for the weak turbulence case, the required laser transmitter power to achieve a BER of 10 to the -8th is about 700 mW of power. For the strong turbulence case, a peak laser transmitter power of 1 kW is required to achieve a BER of 10 to the -5th.

Citation Download Citation

Arun K. Majumdar and William C. Brown "Atmospheric turbulence effects on the performance of multigigabit downlink PPM laser communications", Proc. SPIE 1218, Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies II, (1 July 1990); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.18217

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