Free Space Optical Communication Study for Image Transmission Under Foggy Conditions

Free Space Optical (FSO) Communication is an emerging technology that offers a high data transmission with low system complexity. Fog is considered the major drawback for FSO systems which can reduce the visibility to a few meters. Many studies have focused on the impact of turbulence generated by the air solar heating while a few ones have addressed the influence of fog on image transmission over an FSO link. In this paper, the performance of FSO communication system for image transmission with fog attenuations is studied and discussed. Several performance measures such as signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), quality factor (Q) and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) are used. The results of our research led us to state that FSO is a short-range data transmission technique in communication situations where fog is common. Moreover, our simulation results clearly show that a maximum range of1200 m is obtained in light fog condition with an attenuation of10.12 dB/km while a gradual decrease in distance is noticed in moderate fog (33.97dB/km).