Performance analysis of multiple-input multiple-output free-space optical systems with partially coherent Gaussian beams and finite-sized detectors

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques are employed in free-space optical (FSO) links to mitigate the degrading effects of atmospheric turbulence. We consider a MIMO FSO system, which consists of a radial laser array with partially coherent Gaussian beams at the transmitter and a detector array with Gaussian apertures at the receiver. The average power and the power correlation function at the finite-sized receiver apertures are formulated by using the extended Huygens–Fresnel principle in weak atmospheric turbulence. This let us further quantify the performance metrics such as the power scintillation index, the aperture averaging factor, and the average bit error rate (BER) as functions of system parameters. The derived power scintillation equation correctly reduces to the existing coherent and partially coherent Gaussian beam scintillation indices in the limiting cases. Using the performance metrics, we analyze the effect of various practical system parameters on the performance of a MIMO FSO system. Practical system parameters include the transmitter and receiver ring radius, number of beamlets, number of finite-aperture receivers, source size, degree of source coherence, receiver aperture radius, link distance, and the structure constant of atmosphere