Design and analysis of FSO (Free Space Optics) link at high bit rate

An optical communication system has been optimized and designed for the transmission of bit rates upto 15Gbps. The free space optics link for short haul communication at a wavelength of 1500 nanometer has been developed. For optical fiber link, non return to zero signal, modulated with Mach-Zehnder modulator is used. Free Space optics (FSO) Technology provides high bandwidth along with high data transmission over long link range. Major limitation of the FSO technology is atmospheric turbulence, which decreases data carrying capacity of the optical system with increased bit error rate (BER). In this paper, efforts have been made to mitigate or to minimize the effects of scintillation by evaluating the performance of the system through simulation. Simulated results have been analyzed and factors like Q-factor, received power, BER and eye height have been studied.