An optimization model for robust FSO network dimensioning

FSO (Free Space Optics) is a well established wireless optical transmission technology considered as an alternative to radio communications, for example in metropolitan wireless mesh networks. An FSO link is established by means of a laser beam connecting the transmitter and the receiver placed in the line of sight. A major disadvantage of FSO links (with respect to fiber links) is their sensitivity to weather conditions such as fog, rain and snow, causing substantial loss of the transmission power over the optical channel due mostly to absorption and scattering. Thus, although the FSO technology allows for fast and low-cost deployment of broadband networks, its operation will be affected by this sensitivity, manifested by substantial losses in links' transmission capacity with respect to the nominal capacity. Therefore, a proper approach to FSO network dimensioning should take such losses into account so that the level of carried traffic is satisfactory under all observed weather conditions. In the paper we describe such an approach. We introduce a relevant dimensioning problem and present a robust optimization algorithm for such enhanced dimensioning. A substantial part of the paper is devoted to present a numerical study of two FSO network instances that illustrates the promising effectiveness of the proposed approach.