Atmospheric propagation characteristics of highest importance to commercial free space optics

Eric J. Korevaar; Isaac I. Kim; Bruce McArthur

doi:10.1117/12.483804

30 April 2003 Atmospheric propagation characteristics of highest importance to commercial free space optics

Eric J. Korevaar, Isaac I. Kim, Bruce McArthur

Proceedings Volume 4976, Atmospheric Propagation; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.483804
Event: High-Power Lasers and Applications, 2003, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

There is a certain amount of disconnect between the perception and reality of Free Space Optics (FSO), both in the marketplace and in the technical community. In the marketplace, the requirement for FSO technology has not grown to even a fraction of the levels predicted a few years ago. In the technical community, proposed solutions for the limitations of FSO continue to miss the mark. The main commercial limitation for FSO is that light does not propagate very far in dense fog, which occurs a non-negligible amount of the time. There is no known solution for this problem (other than using microwave or other modality backup systems), and therefore FSO equipment has to be priced very competitively to sell in a marketplace dominated by copper wire, fiber optic cabling and increasingly lower cost and higher bandwidth wireless microwave equipment. Expensive technologies such as adaptive optics, which could potentially increase equipment range in clear weather, do not justify the added cost when expected bad weather conditions are taken into account. In this paper we present a simple equation to fit average data for probability of exceeding different atmospheric attenuation values. This average attenuation equation is then used to compare the expected availability performance as a function of link distance for representative FSO systems of different cost.

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Eric J. Korevaar, Isaac I. Kim, and Bruce McArthur "Atmospheric propagation characteristics of highest importance to commercial free space optics", Proc. SPIE 4976, Atmospheric Propagation, (30 April 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.483804

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