Composite Fading Model for Aerial MIMO FSO Links in the Presence of Atmospheric Turbulence and Pointing Errors

In this letter, we introduce accurate approximation expressions for composite fading channel model and outage probability of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) free space optical (FSO) link between two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in hovering state. In our derivations, we consider the effects of weather attenuation, random fluctuations in UAVs’ positions and orientations, and atmospheric turbulence. Our proposed model is unified with respect to turbulence effect, which means it is valid for different atmospheric turbulence models. We show the accuracy of the proposed model through comparisons with Monte Carlo simulations under different channel conditions.