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Free-Space Optics: A Shifting Paradigm in Optical Communication Systems in Difficult Terrains

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First International Conference on Sustainable Technologies for Computational Intelligence

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 1045))

Abstract

Free-space optical (FSO) communication is a high-speed technology that can be used to promote rapid deployment of ubiquitous wireless service at the geographical locations such as hilly areas, where radio frequency (RF) technology is inaccessible and laying of optical fibers is not physically and economically viable. FSO has gained significant importance due to several advantages such as extremely high bandwidth, unlicensed spectrum allocation, reduced power consumption about half of the RF, ease of deployment, improved channel security, and reduced size which is one-tenth of the diameter of RF antenna. However, along with many advantages of FSO, atmosphere poses a serious limitation on its performance causing absorption, scattering, scintillations, and atmospheric turbulences. This paper presents a comprehensive review of FSO technology. FSO basics along with its advantages over RF are described so that readers can easily get the concept of shifting from RF to optical communication. Further, the paper also highlights the challenges faced by FSO, various models to characterize atmospheric turbulence fluctuations, issues, and methods to overcome them.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, India

    Payal & Suresh Kumar

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  1. Payal
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  2. Suresh Kumar
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Correspondence to Payal .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Communication Engineering, The Papua New Guinea University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea

    Ashish Kumar Luhach

  2. Neumann János University, Kecskemét, Bács-Kiskun, Hungary

    Janos Arpad Kosa

  3. Amity University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

    Ramesh Chandra Poonia

  4. School of Computing, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

    Xiao-Zhi Gao

  5. Department of Computer Science, Namibia University of Science and Technology, Windhoek, Namibia

    Dharm Singh

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Payal, Kumar, S. (2020). Free-Space Optics: A Shifting Paradigm in Optical Communication Systems in Difficult Terrains. In: Luhach, A., Kosa, J., Poonia, R., Gao, XZ., Singh, D. (eds) First International Conference on Sustainable Technologies for Computational Intelligence. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1045. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0029-9_43

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