Experimental studies on the effects of fog and haze on free‐space optical link at 405 nm

Abstract

Free‐space optics (FSO) is a perfect line of sight communication which is gaining a lot of popularity in the current research as it offers many advantages such as license free communication, high bandwidth, high speed, low bit error rate, and so on. Like the other communication technologies, FSO also suffers from adverse effects due to the climatic changes in the atmosphere. Some of the prominent effects that degrade the strength of the signal in free space are the fog, snow, haze, and rain. In this paper, the effects of fog and haze on the FSO link were investigated with the support of both simulated and experimental results. An experimental setup consisting of a single‐channel FSO system enclosed in a glass cabinet is used for generating the experimental results, and the simulation is carried out in OptiSystem using the Kim, Kruse, and Alnaboulsi prediction models. Results demonstrate that the simulated and experimental results follow the same pattern that as the intensity fog or the intensity of haze increases the received voltage levels decline.