Error rate analysis of few-mode fiber based free-space optical communication

Few-mode fiber (FMF) based receiver emerges as a promising solution for free-space optical (FSO) communication due to its excellent performance in the presence of turbulence. We propose a theoretical model that uses the coupling efficiency of FMF to evaluate the performance of FMF-based FSO system in the presence of turbulence. The series solutions and asymptotic solutions to bit-error rate (BER) of such system are derived for maximal-ratio combining (MRC) scheme and equal gain combining (EGC) scheme over the Gamma-Gamma turbulence channels. Simulation results show that for the FMF-based FSO system, the asymptotic BER of MRC and EGC are highly accurate in the large transmitted optical power regimes.