Performance Analysis of RIS-Assisted FSO Communications over Fisher–Snedecor F Turbulence Channels

Abstract

The Fisher–Snedecor (F-S) F distribution has recently been introduced as a tractable turbulence-induced (TI) fading model that fits well with the experimental data. This paper provides a performance evaluation of a free-space optical (FSO) re-configurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted communications (ACs) link over the F-S F TI fading channels, assuming the intensity modulation–direct detection (IM–DD) technique. In particular, novel and closed-form (C-F) analytical expressions for the probability density function (PDF) and cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in terms of Gaussian hyper-geometric functions are efficiently derived. Capitalizing on the obtained results, novel C-F analytical expressions for the moment generating function (MMGF), outage probability (OP), average bit error rate (BER) and ergodic channel capacity (Cγ) of the FSO RIS-ACs system over the F-S F TI fading channels are provided and numerically evaluated under the various TI fading severity conditions. Furthermore, the second-order (S-O) statistical expressions for the level crossing rate (LCR) and average fade duration (AFD) are obtained and thoroughly examined for various FSO RIS-ACs system model parameters.