Availability analysis of hybrid FSO-RF links in dust storm

Mohamed, Eltahir Idris Eltahir and Islam, Md. Rafiqul and Elsheikh, Elfatih A A and Çelebi, Numan and Hassan Abdalla Hashim, Aisha and Habaebi, Mohamed Hadi (2026) Availability analysis of hybrid FSO-RF links in dust storm. In: 2026 10th International Conference on Mechatronics Engineering (ICOM), 8-9 September 2026, Kuala Lumpur.

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Abstract

Clearly, sand and dust storms play an important role in causing wireless communication attenuation in arid and semi-arid environments. In this paper, we examine the effects of a dust storm on the performance of FSO and microwave links in terms of visibility and relative humidity. For this purpose, FSO link wavelengths are 850, 1310, and 1550 nm. On the other hand, microwave links operate at frequencies in the X-, Ku-, Ka- and V-bands. Attenuation in this study has been obtained experimentally for microwave and scattering due to low visibility and particle growth due to relative humidity for FSO links. According to the findings, FSO experiences heavy losses of around 348 dB/km at wavelength 850 nm, 291 dB/km at 1310 nm, and 256 dB/km at 1550 nm with extreme low visibility (0.046 km). To achieve the same visibility, the attenuation experienced by microwave is 9.2 dB/km for X-band, 10.8 dB/km for Ku-band, 23.2 dB/km for Ka-band, and 26.6 dB/km for V-band. With visibility increased to 0.554 km, the attenuation in the case of FSO becomes between 20 and 28 dB/km, while it is below 1.3 dB/km for microwave in all the frequency ranges mentioned. This study concludes that microwave transmission with frequencies of X- and Ku-bands offers effective communication channels even under severe sandstorms and hence serves as an appropriate alternative to free space optical communication. Overall, the results indicate that hybrid FSO-microwave communication system is highly recommended for use in dusty conditions.

Item Type:	Proceeding Paper (Plenary Papers)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Dust storm; Availability; FSO; Millimeter Wave; Propagation
Subjects:	T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering > TK5101 Telecommunication. Including telegraphy, radio, radar, television
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	Kulliyyah of Engineering > Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Kulliyyah of Engineering
Depositing User:	Dr. Mohamed Hadi Habaebi
Date Deposited:	05 Nov 2026 11:58
Last Update:	05 Nov 2026 11:58
Queue Number:	2026-10-Q6017
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/132479
Indexed In:	UNSPECIFIED

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