A Unified Performance Analysis of Free-Space Optical Links Over Gamma-Gamma Turbulence Channels with Pointing Errors

In this work, we present a unified performance analysis of a free-space optical (FSO) link that accounts for pointing errors and both types of detection techniques (i.e. intensity modulation/direct detection as well as heterodyne detection). More specifically, we present unified exact closed-form expressions for the cumulative distribution function, the probability density function, the moment generating function, and the moments of the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a single link FSO transmission system, all in terms of the Meijer’s G function except for the moments that is in terms of simple elementary functions. We then capitalize on these unified results to offer unified exact closed-form expressions for various performance metrics of FSO link transmission systems, such as, the outage probability, the higher-order amount of fading (AF), the average error rate for binary and M -ary modulation schemes, and the ergodic capacity, all in terms of Meijer’s G functions except for the higher-order AF that is in terms of simple elementary functions. Additionally, we derive the asymptotic results for all the expressions derived earlier in terms of Meijer’s G function in the high SNR regime in terms of simple elementary functions via an asymptotic expansion of the Meijer’s G function. We also derive new asymptotic expressions for the ergodic capacity in the low as well as high SNR regimes in terms of simple elementary functions via utilizing moments. All the presented results are verified via computer-based Monte-Carlo simulations.