Evaluating RF signal transmission over radio-on FSO links using aperture averaging

Atmospheric turbulence-induced intensity fluctuations severely impair Free-Space Optical (FSO) communication systems, affecting the quality of the propagated laser beam and lead to significant performance degradation. By using aperture averaging technique, we investigate the performance of the FSO system using a Multiple Subcarrier Modulation (MSM) based on either Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) or Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) schemes under weak-to-strong atmospheric turbulence regimes. The performance is assessed in terms of the Bit-Error-Rate (BER) of the MSM-BPSK and MSM-QPSK systems by applying a modified model taking into consideration the aperture averaging.