Performance of hybrid RF/FSO wireless communication system under low visibility

Abstract

Abstract In the last ten years, there has been a significant increase in the importance of free-space optics (FSO). FSO can be a solution for the last mile, but its reliability and availability issues need to be looked into in depth before they can be fixed. Because FSO links depend so much on the weather, a number of weather-related issues reduce their availability. A hybrid network with an FSO link and a backup link in the GHz frequency band offers good availability and data speeds that are similar to those of a pure FSO network. Fog’s effects on hybrid RF/FSO systems are investigated. As a backup link, the GHz frequencies with the best complementing behavior should be used. The findings demonstrated that high temperatures had no adverse effects on the RF at 25 GHz in terms of impaired visibility. Despite the cold weather, the FSO link required excellent visibility.