Performance evaluation of generalized M-modeled atmospheric optical communications links

In this paper, the performance analysis of atmospheric optical communications links is analyzed in terms of the average bit error rate. To this end, the optical irradiance scintillation due to the turbulence effects is modeled by a generalization of the M´alaga or M distribution. In particular, the behavior of the atmospheric optical channel is treated as a superposition of a finite number of Generalized-K distributed sub-channels, controlled by a discrete Negative-Binomial distribution dependent on the turbulence parameters. Unlike other studies, here, the closed-form mathematical expressions for the average bit error rate for each Generalized-K sub-channel, in which the turbulence parameters are real numbers, are provided, together with the closed-form expression of the whole optical link. Theses new expressions are a valuable tool for analysing the performance of atmospheric optical links.