Performance Investigation of an Intersatellite Optical Wireless Communication (IsOWC) link Between Geostationary Orbit and Low Earth Orbit Satellites at Different Distances

Abstract

The links between satellites in Space communication systems used to be established traditionally via Radio Frequency (RF) signals, soon most of these links will turn out to be Inter Satellite Optical Wireless Communication (IsOWC) links which will lead to better performance, higher efficiency, and more reliability, This paper studies the IsOWC system performance between satellites at different distances, up to 45000 km range, this enables satellites to communicate each other, reaching the Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) from the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Several parameters have a significant influence on the IsOWC performance, like atmospheric turbulence, transmitted optical power, operating wavelength, and photodetector type. In our study, a comparative investigation has been carried out to ascertain which photodetector type enhances the IsOWC link to obtain the maximum Q factor and the minimum bit error rate (BER) over different distances up to 45000 km.