Adaptation of Hybrid FSO/RF Communication System Using Puncturing Technique

Abstract

Spectrum of radio frequency (RF) communications is limited and expensive to install new applications. Free space optical (FSO) communication is a viable technology which offers enormous bandwidth, license free installation, inexpensive deployment and error prone links. The FSO links degrade significantly due to the varying atmospheric and weather conditions (fog, cloud, snow, haze and combination of these). We propose a hybrid FSO/RF communication system which adapts the varying nature of atmosphere and weather. For the adaption of varying atmosphere and weather scenarios, we develop a novel optimization algorithm. The proposed algorithm is based on the well-known puncturing technique. We provide an extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart for the binary and quaternary mapping scheme for the proposed communication system. We simulate the proposed algorithm for the hybrid communication system and analyze the system performance. The proposed algorithm is computationally less expensive and provide better performance gains over varying atmosphere and weather conditions. The algorithm is suitable for fast speed applications.