Investigation on free space optics network system architecture from geostationary orbit to earth

Abstract : Free space optics (FSO) network architecture in the case of geostationary satellite to earth communication link is investigated in this paper. Because of the variation of scintillation due to the complexity of the atmosphere, the optical space to earth communication link channel model has been approximated by considering the atmosphere as strongly turbulent and the other layers as weakly turbulent. In order to overcome the main limitations of the propagation, optical relays with low earth orbit satellites and spatial diversity on earth could improve the link performance. Simulation results show that the proposed network system architecture has outperformed the direct link performance.