Performance analysis of variable-gain amplify and forward relayed hybrid FSO/VLC communication system

In this paper, we consider a hybrid free space optics/visible light communication (FSO/VLC) system having three nodes, where there is no line of sight communication possible between the source node and the destination node and the communication between these two nodes take place with the help of an amplify and forward relay which acts as an intermediate node. The source to relay link is an FSO link modelled by Gamma–Gamma fading distributions and the relay to destination is considered as VLC link. We derive the statistical characteristics of system signal to noise ratio at the destination in terms of moment generating function, closed form expression of end to end outage probability as well as bit error probability of the proposed hybrid system. Furthermore, we analyzed the effect of varying various parameters of both the links, on outage probability as well as on bit error probability of the proposed system.