DYNAMIC PACKET REDUNDANCY FOR A FREE SPACE OPTICAL COMMUNICATION LINK

System (100) and methods (1100) for improving packet loss due to fast optical power fades in an FSO communication link (136). The methods involve: obtaining Channel Fade Statistics ("CFSs") for the FSO communication link; and analyzing CFSs to determine if Redundant Packet Transmission ("RPT") is required to mitigate fast optical power fading. If RPT is required, then first operations are performed at a data link layer (408) of a protocol stack (400) to generate first packets (600). Each packet has a sequence number (602) disposed between a data link layer header (502) and a network layer header (504). If RPT is not required, then second operations are performed at the data link layer to generate a second packet absent of the sequence number or alternatively having a sequence number equal to zero. Thereafter, the packet(s) is transmitted over the FSO communication link one or more times.