Error performance of deep space optical communication with M-ary pulse position modulation over coronal turbulence channels

Free space optical (FSO) communication is a promising technology for future deep space exploration, but it encounters coronal turbulence during superior solar conjunction. In this paper, the bit-error rate (BER) performance of deep space FSO communication systems is evaluated for optical waves propagating in the non-Kolmogorov coronal turbulence. By virtue of its high energy efficiency, the pulse position modulation (PPM) technique is adopted to mitigate the influence of turbulence under lognormal distribution channels. The effects of the parameters of the coronal turbulence and of the FSO system, such as the turbulence outer scale, spectral index, symbol number, data bit rate, equivalent load resistor, and average gain, on the BER are investigated and discussed in this paper. In addition, the performance improvement from M-ary PPM and binary phase-shift keying subcarrier intensity modulation is studied. The results of a numerical evaluation illustrate that a deep space FSO communication system with PPM scheme can well be used to mitigate the impact of coronal turbulence. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement