Enhancement of FSO Communications Links Under Complex Environment

Free space optical communication is a line-of-sight (LOS) technology that uses lasers to provide optical bandwidth connections. Potential disturbance arising from the weather condition is one of the most effective factors that influence the bi-directional free space optics (FSO) performance. The complex weather condition in the Middle East region and Arabian Gulf has been dominated by dust storms activities. Dust storms directly affect the characteristics of FSO and consequently lead to an increase in the bit error rate (BER) and deterioration Q-factor to bad levels due to the high attenuation factor. In this research, the authors compare the differences between two bi-directional FSOs. One is the traditional link, and the other has been developed to enhance the system performance under the dust storms condition. The proposed design consists of dual FSO channels, and each one includes erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) optical amplifiers. This design has demonstrated the proficiency in addressing the attenuation that occurs due to weather stickers. The results prove there is an improvement in performance by measuring the Q-factor. In addition, BER can be significantly improved, and further communicating distance can be achieved by utilizing 1550 nm with multiple channels and EDFA.