ABSTRACT
This chapter is dedicated to the topic of relay-assisted terrestrial optical wireless communications. Due to the effects of the atmospheric channel, it is often beneficial to introduce a relay node between the source and destination nodes in the transmission system. Relaying can be used to offer system robustness and increase the end-to-end link range. The performance of the relaying configuration is extensively covered in this chapter. Relay-assisted techniques can also offer diversity, which can significantly improve the link availability in outdoor optical wireless communication networks with no direct line-of-sight link or path between the source and the destination nodes. The different possible relaying topologies are discussed in-depth and the performance of each method presented.
