In this paper, we investigate the performance of spectral amplitude coding optical code division multiple access (SAC OCDMA) systems under the effect of beat noise and turbulence. Three different multi-laser source configurations are considered in this analysis: shared multi-laser, separate multi-laser, and carefully controlled center frequency separate multi-laser. We demonstrate through Monte Carlo simulation that the gamma–gamma probability density function (pdf) cannot adequately approximate the measured intensity of overlapping lasers and that an empirical pdf is required. Results also show it is possible to achieve error-free transmission at a symmetrical data rate of 10 Gbps for all active users when only beat noise is taken into account by precisely controlling the center frequencies. However, only 30% of the active users can be supported when both beat noise and turbulence are considered.
