Effects of atmosphere visibility on performances of non-line-of-sight ultraviolet communication systems

Dependence of performances of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) solar-blind ultraviolet (UV) communication systems on atmosphere visibility is investigated numerically by correlating the propagation of UV radiation with the visibility. A simplified solar-blind UV atmospheric propagation model is introduced, and the NLOS UV communication system model is constituted based on the single scattering assumption. Using the model, numerical simulation is conducted for two typical geometry configurations and different modulation formats. The results indicate that the performance of the NLOS UV communication system is insensitive to variation of visibility in quite a large range, and deteriorates significantly only in very low-visibility weather, and is also dependent on the geometry configuration of the system. The results also show that the pulse position modulation (PPM) is preferable due to its high-power efficiency to improve the system performance.