  We study the performance of multi-hop networks composed of millimeter wave
(MMW)-based radio frequency (RF) and free-space optical (FSO) links. The
results are obtained in the cases with and without hybrid automatic repeat
request (HARQ). Taking the MMW characteristics of the RF links into account, we
derive closed-form expressions for the network outage probability. We also
evaluate the effect of various parameters such as power amplifiers efficiency,
number of antennas as well as different coherence times of the RF and the FSO
links on the system performance. Finally, we present mappings between the
performance of RF-FSO multi-hop networks and the ones using only the RF- or the
FSO-based communication, in the sense that with appropriate parameter settings
the same outage probability is achieved in these setups. The results show the
efficiency of the RF-FSO setups in different conditions. Moreover, the HARQ can
effectively improve the outage probability/energy efficiency, and compensate
the effect of hardware impairments in RF-FSO networks. For common parameter
settings of the RF-FSO dual-hop networks, outage probability 10^{-4} and code
rate 3 nats-per-channel-use, the implementation of HARQ with a maximum of 2 and
3 retransmissions reduces the required power, compared to the cases with no
HARQ, by 13 and 17 dB, respectively.
