Experimental verification of the limits of optical channel intensity reciprocity

• DOI: 10.1364/ao.51.003145
• Publication Date: 2012-05-21T13:47:51Z
• Authors: Dirk Giggenbach; William Cowley; Ken Grant; Nicolas Perlot
• Keywords: Atmospheric optics; Reciprocity; Free-Space Optical Communication; Intensity; SIGNAL (programming language); Transceiver

Optical data links through the atmosphere suffer from turbulence-induced signal scintillation. In a coaxially-symmetric bidirectional link scenario, variations of axial intensities at both ends are correlated. This relation can be used as an inherent feedback mechanism, with negligible delay, to enhance capacity transmission system. By experiment, we show correlation coefficient received signals reach values close one over long atmospheric distances, provided receiver apertures smaller than specific intensity speckle structures, while reduces gradually larger apertures. allows optimized adaptive transceiver systems that take into account degree correlation.