Optical Scintillation Measurements in a Desert Environment 4:Simulated Effects of Scintillation on Communications Links

摘要

Optical scintillation is an effect that limits the performance of many optical systems including imagers and free space optical communication links. The Naval Research Laboratory is undertaking a series of measurement campaigns of optical scintillation in a variety of environments. In December of 2010 measurements were made over a one week period in the desert at China Lake, CA. The NRL TATS system was used to measure time resolved scintillation over a variety of different ranges and terrains. This data has been used to determine fade rate and duration as a function of weather and link margin. Temporal correlation of fades has also been calculated. This data allows simulation of a variety of communication protocols and the effects of those protocols on link throughput. In this paper we present a comparison of different protocols for both direct and retroreflector links.