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The emerging technology of power-by-light enables power and data delivery over a single Free Space Optical (FSO) link for electrically isolated, interference-free remote operation. Telecom wavelength bands (λ ≈ 1550 nm) are well known for applications in data communication over optical fiber and overlap atmospheric transparency windows, extending the reach of FSO power and data systems through the air. This creates the opportunity to directionally deliver significant power (above 1mW) and high speed data wirelessly over long distances. FSO channels can experience turbulence and weather conditions that affect data and power transmission. Hence, they should be modeled and verified against measurements under varied atmospheric conditions. This will help improve model precision and robustness in predicting FSO channel performance. Accurate modeling of data transmission in FSO channels is urgently required to support the design of wireless optical communication systems for remote areas to which fiber deployment is difficult or uneconomic and instead long-range data communications between ground stations and High-Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) may be employed. We have modelled an FSO channel transmitting data and power at 1550 and 1520 nm respectively under various meteorological conditions. The system model was developed in the commercially available OptiSystem software for modeling signals transmission. Different weather conditions translate directly to different FSO channel signal attenuations, impacting both data and power transmission. We also explore the impact of different modulation schemes such as Quadratic Amplitude Modulation (QAM), Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM), and Quadratic Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) on the bit error rate of the transmitted data thereby achieving the optimal required hardware design parameters. We found that QPSK is predicted to have the longest viable FSO range across all weather conditions and that power cannot be transmitted past 1 km in foggy weather.
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