Investigation on the UAV-To-Satellite Optical Communication Systems

Abstract

With the increasing demand on the data rate of high-definition (HD) remote detection using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), scientists have moved on from the technique of traditional microwave communication to the technique of optical communication. Through transmitting data to a geosynchronous orbit relay satellite at a high data rate, a UAV can release the storage capacity of its hard drive so as to immediately conduct a new round of HD photo shooting. In this case, we construct a theoretical model of a UAV-to-satellite optical communication system. To optimize the system performance, this paper analyzes the Doppler effect, the pointing error effect, and the atmospheric turbulence effect on the communication performance based on a theoretical study and numerical simulations. In terms of the Doppler effect, the extra background noise caused by slightly increasing the optical filter bandwidth at the receiver has a far weaker effect on the communication performance compared with the effects of atmospheric turbulence and pointing error. In terms of the effects of atmospheric turbulence and pointing error, we further analyze the key parameters of both uplink and downlink systems to better understand these effects. The numerical results can provide data references for practical system designs.