Performance of free-space optical systems in the presence of receiver imperfections

Abstract

We present a review of papers considering the subcarrier intensity modulation free-space optical (FSO) communication systems in the presence of phase noise. This phase noise is a consequence of imperfect reference signal extraction in electrical domain after photodetector. We illustrate the effects of this phenomenon on the system symbol-error rate performance. The examples show that receiver imperfections, presented through phase noise, can degrade the FSO system performance to a large extent.