RIS-aided free-space optics communications in A2G networks over inverted Gamma–Gamma turbulent channels

Abstract

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have revolutionized free-space optics (FSO) communication by dynamically optimizing the propagation environment. This study proposes a framework to analyze RIS-assisted FSO communication over inverted Gamma–Gamma (IGGG) distributions. We use the IGGG distribution for air-to-ground networks, accurately modeling atmospheric turbulence. Consequently, we derived performance metrics in terms of Meijer’s G by employing an asymptotic analysis to provide deeper insights. Our results demonstrate incorporating RISs into our proposed network enhances outage performance by 52.08% at a SNR of 30 dB. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of heterodyne detection in mitigating the adverse effects of pointing errors.