A Multiband Transparent Transponder Based on Reconfigurable Optical Frequency Combs for Cross Connection of Intersatellite and Satellite Ground

Abstract

In this paper, a parallel multiband frequency-conversion scheme for satellite applications based on a single optical frequency comb is proposed, and a reconfigurable satellite transponder is designed for future multiband broadband satellites. In addition, we establish a test system of onboard multiband frequency-conversion on the strength of microwave photonics and, a proof-of-concept experiment is demonstrated in which a Ka-band signal is converted to other satellite frequency bands. The experimental results reveal our system feasibility, and the bit error rate of recovered baseband data is less than 10 -9 . Moreover, the optical frequency combs can be reconfigured by adjusting the parameters of the local oscillator and optical modulator.