UAV-Assisted RF/FSO Relay System for Space-Air-Ground Integrated Network: A Performance Analysis

Space-air-ground integrated networks (SAGIN) within UAV-assisted free-space optical (FSO) communication systems can efficiently accommodate massive connections and provide highly reliable and seamless communications. In this work, we investigate the performance of a UAV-assisted, asymmetric, dual-hop radio frequency (RF)/FSO system with the amplified-and-forward relay protocol for the SAGIN. Specifically, the shadowed Rician fading is utilized in this study to characterize the shadowing effect on the RF signal for the satellite-to-UAV link. Meanwhile, the atmospheric turbulence effect on the optical signal for the UAV-to-terrestrial user link is modeled by the Málaga distribution fading, in view of the pointing error impairments. For comparison, the heterodyne detection technique is employed, as well as the intensity modulation with direct detection technique, in improving performance of the relay system. Thus, we derive the closed-form expressions for the cumulative distribution function, probability density function, the moment generating function, and particularly, the moments of the end-to-end RF/FSO system, in terms of Meijer’s G-function. Utilizing these derived formulae, the precise closed-form expressions for the outage probability, the average bit error rate (BER) with various modulation schemes, and the ergodic capacity are given. In specific, the tight asymptotic results for the outage probability and the average BER at the high SNR regions are derived using the asymptotic expansion of Meijer’s G-function. Furthermore, closed-form expressions are presented for the case that the FSO link experiences Gamma-Gamma distribution by changing some specific parameters. Finally, extensive numerical results validate the theoretical results with the Monte-Carlo simulation.