Performance evaluation of free space optical communication terminal with local weather considerations

Terrestrial free space optical communication (FSOC) has attracted significant attention in recent years due to its numerous advantages. However, its performance is highly susceptible to environmental conditions. This paper introduces a methodology for evaluating the performance of the FSOC terminal with consideration of local weather conditions and validates this approach using a developed FSOC terminal. By leveraging meteorological data to estimate the refractive index structure constant (Cn2) for specific regions and applying a gamma-gamma channel model, turbulence-induced fading is assessed. The suitability of these models is confirmed through measurements of the received signal strength indicator at the FSOC terminal developed by us, which enables an estimation of the outage probability of the FSOC link. Additionally, through experimental verification of the terminal under domestic weather conditions, the impact of turbulence-induced fading on single-channel transmission according to the 2.5 GBASE-T Ethernet standard is demonstrated on a free-space optical link of over 5.8 km.