Advances in Free Space Optical Communications and Optical Turbulence Modeling

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to discuss the latest advances on free-space optical communications and optical turbulence modeling. Although interest in FSO systems has recently been increasing and many systems have been implemented, most of them cannot yet successfully operate in strong fog and turbulence conditions. Such challenging scenarios require the use of new techniques including modulation formats, laser beams that are less affected by turbulence, wavefront sensors that are more resilient to scintillation, adaptive optics and so on. In the atmosphere, propagation though deep turbulence can be present at low elevation angles for satellite communications or already after a few kilometers of horizontal paths for terrestrial links. Even more challenging conditions are present in the ocean, where propagation is limited to a hundred meters or less and scattering is dominant. This Special Issue encourages discussions on new methods and techniques to increase the effectiveness of FSO systems operating in the atmosphere and/or underwater.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

1. New modulation techniques;
2. Correction codes (FEC) capable of performing better in turbulent channels;
3. Laser beams with different shapes and coherence properties (OAM, “exotic” beams);
4. New wavefront sensors (sensor-less, oleographic, improved Shack–Hartmann);
5. Adaptive optics techniques;
6. New power spectrums for turbulence modeling in the atmosphere or ocean;
7. Investigations on laser beam propagation through the atmosphere, ocean or both (airplane to submarine case), including sea-surface (waves) refractive effects;
8. Optical system performance (BER, SNR, fading, outage probability);
9. New probability density function (Pdf) models to describe the statistics at the focal plane of beam intensity and phase, coupling efficiency;
10. Budget link analysis of real FSO scenarios.

Dr. Italo Toselli
Dr. Rubén Boluda-Ruiz
Guest Editors

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