Performance analysis of FSO communications under LOS blockage

Abstract: We analyze the performance of a free-space optical (FSO) link affected by atmospheric turbulence and line-of-sight (LOS) blockage. For this purpose, the atmospheric turbulence induced fading is modeled by the M-distribution, which includes the Gamma-Gamma distribution as special case. We exploit the fact that the physical interpretation of the M-distribution allows to split the optical energy through the propagation link into three different components: two coherent components and one incoherent scatter component. Based on this separation, we derive novel analytical expressions for the probability density function (PDF), for the cumulative distribution function (CDF) and for the moment generating function (MGF) of the M-distribution under the temporary blockage of the coherent components, hereinafter referred to as LOS blockage. Further, a new closed-form expression for the outage probability (OP) under LOS blockage is derived in terms of the turbulence model parameters and the LOS blockage probability. By means of an asymptotic analysis, this expression is simplified in the high-SNR regime and the OP in terms of the diversity order and diversity gain is then deduced. Obtained results show that the impact of the LOS blockage on the OP strongly depends on the intensity of the turbulence and on the LOS blockage probability.