In this paper, we investigate the performance of a mixed radio-frequency-underwater wireless optical communication (RF-UWOC) system where an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), as a low-altitude mobile aerial base station, transmits information to an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) through a fixed-gain amplify-and-forward (AF) or decode-and-forward (DF) relay. The analysis accounts for the main factors that affect the system performance, such as the UAV height, air bubbles, temperature gradient, water salinity variations, detection techniques, and pointing errors. Employing the fixed-gain AF and DF relays, expressions for some key performance metrics are derived, e.g., outage probability (OP), average bit error rate (ABER), and average channel capacity. Moreover, in order to get further insights, asymptotic analyses for the OP and ABER are also carried out. Additionally, for the two relaying systems, we derive analytical expressions for the optimal UAV altitude that minimizes the OP. Simulation results show that the UAV altitude influences the system performance and there is an optimal altitude which ensures a minimum OP. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the diversity order of the fixed-gain AF relaying depends on the RF link and pointing errors, while the diversity order of the DF relaying depends on the detection techniques and pointing errors.

In this article, we investigate the performance of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted dual-hop mixed radio-frequency underwater wireless optical communication (RF-UWOC) system. An RIS is an emerging and low-cost technology that aims to enhance the strength of the received signal, thus improving the system performance. In the considered system setup, a ground source does not have a reliable direct link to a given marine buoy and communicates with it through an RIS installed on a building. In particular, the fixed buoy acts as a relay that sends the signal to an underwater destination. In this context, analytical expressions for the outage probability (OP), average bit error rate (ABER), and average channel capacity (ACC) are derived assuming fixed-gain amplify-and-forward (AF) and decode-and-forward (DF) relaying protocols at the marine buoy. Moreover, asymptotic analyses of the OP and ABER are carried out in order to gain further insights from the analytical frameworks. In particular, the system diversity order is derived and it is shown to depend on the RF link parameters and on the detection schemes of the UWOC link. Finally, it is demonstrated that RIS-assisted systems can effectively improve the performance of mixed dual-hop RF-UWOC systems.

In this correspondence, we consider a mixed radio-frequency/underwater wireless optical communication(RF-UWOC) system with a fixed-gain amplify-and-forward relay, where the RF link experiences a Generalized-K distribution while the UWOC link undergoes a mixture Exponential-Generalized Gamma distribution. In our analysis, new closed-form expressions for the cumulative distribution function(CDF) and probability density function(PDF) of the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) are derived. Capitalizing on these useful statistics, the performance of the proposed mixed RF-UWOC system is investigated in terms of the outage probability, average bit error rate, and average channel capacity. Our analytical expressions are verified via Monte Carlo simulations results, and insightful discussions are presented.

In this article, the performance of a dual-hop relaying terahertz (THz) wireless communication system is investigated. In particular, the behaviors of the two THz hops are determined by three factors, such as the deterministic path loss, fading effects, and pointing errors. Assuming that both THz links are subject to the $\alpha $ - $\mu $ fading with pointing errors, we derive exact expressions for the cumulative distribution function (CDF) and probability density function (PDF) of the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). With these statistical expressions, some important performance metrics are evaluated, such as the outage probability (OP), average bit error rate (BER), and average channel capacity (ACC). Moreover, the asymptotic analyses are presented to obtain more insights. The results show that the dual-hop relaying scheme has better performance than the single THz link. Furthermore, the system diversity order depends on the fading parameters and pointing errors of both THz links. In addition, we extend the analysis to a multirelay cooperative diversity system and derive the asymptotic symbol error rate (SER) expressions. Finally, the derived analytical expressions are verified by the Monte Carlo simulation.

In this paper, the performance of a mixed Terahertz/free-space optical (THz/FSO) wireless transmission system is studied, where the joint effects of channel fading and pointing errors are considered for both THz and FSO links. Employing the semi-blind amplify-and-forward protocol, we derive the cumulative distribution function and probability density function of the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio. By applying the derived statistics, exact expressions for the outage probability (OP), average bit error rate (BER), and average channel capacity are obtained. In order to attain useful physical insights, asymptotic OP and average BER expressions are also presented. Based on them, the diversity gain is determined, which is shown to depend on channel fading and pointing errors of both links. In addition, by taking into account the hardware impairments, the OP of the non-ideal hardware system is derived. Moreover, the analysis is extended to multi-antenna scenarios and the asymptotic OP is obtained. Finally, illustrative numerical results are plotted and it can be observed that the path loss, channel fading, pointing errors and hardware impairments lead to a considerable degradation in system performance.

In this letter, a performance study of a mixed dual-hop communication system consisting of free-space optical/underwater wireless optical communication (FSO-UWOC) links is presented. In particular, considering both heterodyne detection and intensity modulation with direct detection (IM/DD), we assume that the FSO channel suffers a Gamma-Gamma fading in the presence of pointing error impairments, while the UWOC channel experiences a mixture Exponential-Generalized Gamma (EGG) fading with pointing errors. Assuming a fixed-gain amplify-and-forward (AF) protocol, closed-form expressions for the outage probability, average bit-error-rate, and average capacity in terms of the bivariate Fox’s H-function are derived. To verify the derived analytical expressions, numerical results are provided to verify the accuracy of our results.