Performance analysis of multiple HAPS-based hybrid FSO/RF space-air-ground networks

Abstract

Sixth generation (6G) networks are anticipated to support increasingly data-hungry applications by expanding the network capabilities and connectivity. Free space optics (FSO) communication with space-air-ground (SAG) network becomes a potential solution to meet the enormous traffic demands and ubiquitous connectivity requirement in 6G networks. In spite of various advantages offered by FSO communication such as high bandwidth availability, large unlicensed spectrum, better security, etc., the FSO link exhibits a high degree of responsiveness to atmospheric turbulence, attenuation, and pointing errors. Thus to mitigate the severe atmospheric effects, we propose a multiple high-altitude platform station (HAPS)-based SAG network, where HAPS functions as a decode-and-forward (DF) relay node between ground station and satellite. We take into account a hybrid FSO/radio frequency (RF) link for connecting ground station and HAPS nodes and an FSO link between HAPS and satellite. The performance analysis of the proposed SAG network involves evaluating the outage probability and average symbol error rate (SER) considering the presence of pointing errors and assuming Málaga distribution in case of FSO and shadowed k - µ fading distribution in case of RF link. Furthermore, asymptotic analysis is conducted to determine the diversity gain of the proposed system. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed multiple HAPS-based hybrid FSO/RF SAG network outperforms all other existing HAPS-based SAG network models in the literature.