Experimental study on scintillation effect of 13-km urban space laser communication based on space diversity technology

In our study, a communication experiment with a 13-km horizontal urban link was conducted based on space diversity technology to examine the communication performance and scintillation effect of this link. Four different distribution models, including the Gamma-Gamma distribution model, were selected. Although the scope of application of the other distribution models was smaller than that of the Gamma-Gamma distribution model, they had better fitting effects than the Gamma-Gamma distribution model did regarding the use of space diversity technology in extreme urban environments with strong or weak turbulence; the degree of fit could reach more than 0.9. We concluded that the space diversity technology had a certain influence on the probability density function of the light intensity fluctuation and a significant inhibitory effect on the scintillation light intensity, resulting in a gain of more than an order of magnitude for the bit error rate.