Average BER of free-space optical systems in turbulent atmosphere with exponentiated Weibull distribution

A computationally efficient expression is presented for evaluating the average bit error rate (BER) of an intensity-modulation and direct-detection free-space optical system with on-off keying signaling technique operating in turbulent atmosphere described by the exponentiated Weibull distribution. The presented numerical results show the effects of aperture averaging on the average BER under weak and moderate turbulence conditions, and are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations.