HAPS based integrated space air ground networks with hybrid FSO/RF communication

Abstract

Due to its unique characteristics, free space optics (FSO) communication has gained major importance in providing gigabit capacity links. However, detrimental effects of the transmis sion medium, such as air turbulence-induced fading, wind, and so on, limit its performance. To improve the performance of FSO communication, it is important to backup with stable radio frequency (RF) links. Future satellite communication (SATCOM) systems could ben efit from the integration of FSO and RF technologies. In this respect, the current research provides two unique system models for high-altitude platform station (HAPS)-based uplink and downlink relaying using both FSO and RF links. Further, the obtained closed-form expressions for average symbol error rate (SER) and outage probability are validated using Monte Carlo simulation results. Finally, various interesting inferences have been reported using the obtained performance metrics.