Bit error rate analysis of free-space optical system with spatial diversity over strong atmospheric turbulence channel with pointing errors

Free-space optical communication (FSO) is emerging as a captivating alternative to work out the hindrances in the connectivity problems. It can be used for transmitting signals over common lands and properties that the sender or receiver may not own. The performance of an FSO system depends on the random environmental conditions. The bit error rate (BER) performance of differential phase shift keying FSO system is investigated. A distributed strong atmospheric turbulence channel with pointing error is considered for the BER analysis. Here, the system models are developed for single-input, single-output-FSO (SISO-FSO) and single-input, multiple-output-FSO (SIMO-FSO) systems. The closed-form mathematical expressions are derived for the average BER with various combining schemes in terms of the Meijer's G function. (C) 2014 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)