Space-based laser cross-link systems used in satellite communications

Abstract

Space-based optical communications using satellites in low earth orbit (LEO) and Geo-synchronous orbits (GEO) hold great promise for the proposed Internet in the Sky network of the future. Building high speed communications network using optical links in space has proven to be an extremely complicated task and many such schemes were tried without success in the past. However in the last few years, there has been impressive progress made to bring the concept to fruition in civilian and government-non classified projects. Laser Communications offer a viable alternative to established RF communications for inter-satellite links and other applications where high performance links are a necessity. High data rate, small antenna size, narrow beam divergence, and a narrow field of view are characteristics of laser communications that offer a number of potential advantages for system design. This paper will focus on the requirements of the spacebased lasers and optics used for beam forming, as well as receiver antenna gain and detectors used in free space communications. Also discussed are the critical parameters in the transmitter, channel, receiver, and link budget that are employed in successful inter-satellite communications system.