Development of Free Space Optical Communication Testbed for Fog and Rain Attenuations Measurement

• Danasabe GAMBO

  Department of Electrical Electronics Engineering, Kaduna State University, Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria

  Author

• Isyaku YA’U

  Department of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria

  Author

• Tisan A. GREGORY

  Department of Electrical Electronics Engineering Technology, Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria

  Author

This research developed a cost-effective laboratory testbed for Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) that serves as an educational and research platform for studying modern optical communication. The system was designed to transmit both text and audio signals and its performance was experimentally evaluated under controlled fog and rain conditions. Two types of receivers were tested: a mini solar panel and a photodiode. Findings revealed that the solar panel consistently achieved higher SNR values of 60 dB in fog and 90 dB in rain compared to the photodiode, which attained 38 dB and 58 dB respectively, at the same BER of 10^-4. The superior performance of the solar panel is attributed to its larger field of view, which helps reduce beam divergence losses. Finally, the developed system demonstrated a bandwidth of 8.450 GHz, making it a useful educational and experimental platform for FSOC research.

• FJET_12_84_77

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