Summary: | Free space optics (FSO) has the potential to replace
optical fiber as a solution for the last mile problem. FSO is
favored because of its cheap maintenance costs and quick
deployment time as compared to other communication system
such as fiber optics. Atmospheric attenuation is a problem for
FSOs with classic single beam systems, especially when it rains
heavily specially in tropical region like Malaysia. As a result, a
multibeam FSO transceiver system has become popular as a
solution to this problem. The purpose of this study is to compare
the standard single beam FSO system with the suggested
multibeam FSO system. At a bit error rate (BER) of 10-9, the
comparison is made in terms of received optical power, channel
distance, and geometrical losses. Rain intensity data is gathered
over a six-month period. To evaluate the performance of both
systems, the average rain attenuation is calculated from this data
and exposed to single beam and multibeam FSO systems. The
multibeam FSO approach was found to increase the system's
performance. The results show that employing up to four beams
improves the quality of received power and increases the channel
distance to 1150 m when compared to a single beam FSO system
with a channel distance of only 830 m.
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