Optical Ground Network Diversity Analysis for Free Space Optical Communications

Free Space Optical (FSO) Communications are foreseen as key enabler technology for future Terabits/s feederlink fixed satellite services. However, earth-space optical links suffer from several atmospheric impairments such as cloud blockage, aerosols scattering, molecular absorption and turbulence. More specifically, cloud blockage has a major impact on the availability of optical links. In order to achieve the required system capacity and availability, ground networks of multiple Optical Ground Stations (OGSs) are envisaged. This paper presents a comparison between a set of simulation tools which can be used to analyze the availability of optical ground networks for fixed satellite services with respect to cloudiness.