Cloud attenuations for free-space optical links

Free-space Optics (FSO) or optical wireless offers huge unlicensed bandwidth and is able to deliver the required bandwidth needed in next ten years for the next generation networks (NGN). Moreover, an increasing number of military and commercial access systems rely critically on the propagation of optical energy through the atmospheric free-space. As a result the need for predictable estimates of optical attenuation in low visibility conditions is steadily increasing, especially for fog, rain, clouds and snowfall. Cloud attenuations are the least observed/measured in case of free-space optical wireless links. We investigate here the influence of cloud attenuations on the performance of optical wireless links.