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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Phys.
Sec. Optics and Photonics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphy.2025.1556402
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances and Applications of Optical Wireless Communication in Next-Generation Networks. View all articles
Hybrid MDM-MIMO Radio-over-Free Space Optical System for High-Capacity 5G and Beyond Networks under Strong and Weak Scintillation
Provisionally accepted- 1 Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology, Maoming, Guangdong, China
- 2 Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand
- 3 Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom
- 4 Glasgow College, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
- 5 National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India
The integration of Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) technologies is crucial for achieving the high-capacity, low-latency, and reliable communication requirements of 5G and Beyond networks. This paper presents a hybrid Radio-over-Free Space Optical (RoFSO) system employing Mode Division Multiplexing (MDM) and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) schemes to enhance data transmission over long distances. The proposed system operates at an 80 GHz millimeter-wave carrier and achieves a data rate of 20 Gbps per channel. To ensure robust performance under varying atmospheric conditions, including weak and strong scintillations, the Gamma-Gamma turbulence model is employed to characterize channel impairments. Results indicate that MDM-MIMO configurations significantly improve link reliability, reduce Bit Error Rate (BER), and enhance spectral efficiency compared to conventional systems. This study provides valuable insights into the design of scalable and resilient RoFSO systems capable of supporting the stringent demands of next-generation highspeed wireless communication networks.
Keywords: Millimeter waves, radio over free space optics, mode division multiplexing, Multiple input multiple output, Scintillations
Received: 06 Jan 2025; Accepted: 21 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chaudhary, Khichar, Saadi, Parnianifard and SHARMA. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Sushank Chaudhary, Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology, Maoming, 525000, Guangdong, China
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