Stationary high-bandwidth beacon-tracking lasercom experiments and the evolution toward a mobile lasercom capability

Bradley M. Jost; Kevin M. Carlson; Ewing H. Hackney; Felix E. Morgan; John R. Nelson; Kirk J. Powell; Paul D. Shubert; Martin G. Smith

doi:10.1117/12.562089

20 October 2004 Stationary high-bandwidth beacon-tracking lasercom experiments and the evolution toward a mobile lasercom capability

Bradley M. Jost, Kevin M. Carlson, Ewing H. Hackney, Felix E. Morgan, John R. Nelson, Kirk J. Powell, Paul D. Shubert, Martin G. Smith

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5550, Free-Space Laser Communications IV; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.562089
Event: Optical Science and Technology, the SPIE 49th Annual Meeting, 2004, Denver, Colorado, United States

Abstract

Stationary high-bandwidth experiments with a portable lasercom (laser communication) system were performed over a wide range of scintillation indices (< 0.1 to 1) at the Department of Energy’s Nevada Test Site in the summer of 2003. Active alignment was performed with a quad-cell tracking detector at the transmitter transponder and a conical-scan tracking beam at the receiver transponder. During good scintillation conditions, 2-km 10-Gb/s and 11-km 2.5-Gb/s capabilities were demonstrated at error-free bit-error rates over continuous intervals on the order of half an hour. The experimental transponder configuration, which had 2.5-cm transmit-side and 8-cm receive-side aperture diameters, is described and test results are presented. Modifications to the stationary beacon-tracking transponder system that support a semi-autonomous (aided-pointing), mobile, lasercom capability are discussed.

Citation Download Citation

Bradley M. Jost, Kevin M. Carlson, Ewing H. Hackney, Felix E. Morgan, John R. Nelson, Kirk J. Powell, Paul D. Shubert, and Martin G. Smith "Stationary high-bandwidth beacon-tracking lasercom experiments and the evolution toward a mobile lasercom capability", Proc. SPIE 5550, Free-Space Laser Communications IV, (20 October 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.562089

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