Design of ground testing systems which are compatible with two kinds of communication terminals

Abstract

Space laser communication and space quantum communication are all space optical communication, they are similar in communication links, high accuracy tracking and pointing, ground testing etc. The characters of space optical communication determine the necessity of testing and verifying communication terminals, for example, the laser beam reach diffraction limit in space laser communication, weak light detection or single photon detection should be carried out in space quantum communication, communication terminals are relatively moving refer to the ground station, and the terminals should have high quality in tracking target and pointing laser beam, so good system should be used in testing and verifying communication terminals. In this paper we did research on ground testing and verifying systems, we developed optical paths and two ground testing and verifying systems which are compatible with space laser communication and space quantum communication, the two systems contain one laboratory used system and one portable outfield used system. The laboratory used system mainly contains optical communication terminal, two dimensional (2D) simulation turntable, collimator and rear optical path, it can simulate the moving environment, transmission channel and relative motion of the satellite to ground or inter-satellite optical communication, it can also fully test the condition and performance of the optical communication terminals. The portable outfield used system mainly contains opto-mechanical subsystem, 2D turntable, electronic cabinet. The opto-mechanical subsystem is installed on the 2D turntable, it contains front and rear optical path. Electronic cabinet contains industry computer, turntable controller, GPS radio and optical controller, it mainly executes data acquisition, receiving and transmitting command. The portable outfield used system can be used in outfield, to help testing and verifying space-borne equipment. The design breaks through several difficulties, and improved the integrated degree of the system. Theory analysis and experiment shows the system can work properly.