Experimental Channel Statistics of Drone-to-Ground Retro-Reflected FSO Links With Fine-Tracking Systems

The utilization of drones as flying base stations (BSs) in the sixth-generation (6G) cellular networks has attracted much attention recently. In this context, free-space optical (FSO) systems could be deployed to provide high-capacity fronthaul/backhaul links between and ground BSs. Particularly, a drone-to-ground FSO communication link can established by equipping drone with modulating retro-reflector (MRR) modulate incoming beam reflect modulated back along same path. This helps alleviate stringent pointing requirements from while satisfying limited size, weight, power (SWaP) consumption requirements. Nevertheless, underlying physical channel effects aerial retro-reflected system have never been experimentally explored literature. paper, we report, for first time, experimental statistics link, offering practical insights into angle-of-arrival (AoA) fluctuations at receiver, coherence probability fade, level crossing rate, average fade duration, time-frequency characteristics. Our results are expected serve sources reference theoretical performance analyses engineering designs drone-based systems.