Abstract
The effects of pointing errors on the performance of a free-space optical laser
communication system are studied. The log-normal and gamma-gamma irradiance probability
density function models have been considered to include the effects of optical
turbulence. An expression for the mean intensity under pointing fluctuations is derived.
Results for ergodic and outage channel capacities are presented. Since the irradiance
statistics vary with pointing fluctuations, a wave-optics-based approach is proposed to
evaluate the capacity expressions. Although, in general, turbulence degrades
communications link performance, it can reduce sensitivity to pointing errors by
increasing the effective beam radius. Finally, we present analytical expressions for
evaluating the bit-error-rate performance of the ${on}$–${off}$ keying system in the
presence of pointing errors, and provide error performance results.
© 2009 IEEE
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