Ultraviolet communication with a large scattering angle via artificial agglomerate fog

Abstract

Considering strong signal attenuation of the large-angle non-line-of-sight (NLOS) link achieved due to the ultraviolet (UV) scattering properties, we propose to increase the UV communication link gain under a large scattering angle via generating agglomerate fog within a certain range as a secondary light source. In this study, a channel model with locally strong scatterers from agglomerate fog is proposed based on Monte Carlo ray-tracing approaches. Mie theory is adopted to calculate the atmospheric channel parameters, to further evaluate the link gain of a channel under non-uniform atmosphere. The performance of scattering system in the presence of fog conditions depends on the relative positions of the light source to the fog and to the receiver. The link gain results reveal the transmission capabilities for different scattering channel geometries, and give the optimal spray point location within a 10 m communication range. We further establish a foggy NLOS system using an agglomerate fog generator to verify our research in the real environment. The results show that the received signal strength of the NLOS link can be effectively enhanced by constructing scatterers in the atmospheric channel, which significantly decreases the bit-error rate (BER).