Study of Lateral Misalignment Tolerance of a Free Space Optical Link for the Development of an Intra ISS Point to Point Wireless Optical Link

Tedder, Sarah A.; Schoenholz, Bryan L.

doi:10.2514/6.2016-5710

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Both show an average of ~5 dB less change in power than MMF to MMF (diamonds) over the full range of temperature change. These results agree with our previous work 1 where we showed that increasing the transmit fiber core size decreases the received power stability. The SMF to SMF (circles) has average power changes that are similar to the DCF at temperature changes less than 0.4 °C.…”

Section: Power Stability Under Small Alignment Changessupporting

confidence: 93%

“…High data rate (~10 Gb/s), low size, weight, and power (SWaP), and low cost free space optical links (FSOLs) are needed for space and aeronautical communication applications to send and receive large volumes of science data. Previously, we explored ways to reduce SWaP and cost for an Intra International Space Station optical link 1 . In Ref.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Ref. [1], we examined the design strategies: passive misalignment tolerance (reducing the pointing accuracy requirement), sharing the optical transmit and receive paths (imposing optical symmetry), and using small form factor pluggable (SFP) optical transceivers. In this paper we explore double clad fiber's (DCF) capability to implement all of these design strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploration of double clad fibers for increased stability of bidirectional free space optical links

Tedder

Schoenholz

Berkson

et al. 2018

Free-Space Laser Communication and Atmospheric Propagation XXX

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Bidirectional, high data rate, low size, weight, and power (SWaP), and low cost free space optical links are needed for space and aeronautic communication applications to send and receive large volumes of data. We are exploring design strategies for optical transceivers to reduce SWaP and cost through increased misalignment tolerance (pointing requirement reduction) and sharing the optical transmit and receive paths (imposing optical symmetry). In applications where the detector is fiber coupled, the receive fiber numerical aperture is the main driver of the pointing accuracy requirement. Increasing the numerical aperture of the receive fiber reduces the pointing requirement. In an optically symmetric design, the fibers both transmit and receive the light. Hence, increasing the receive fiber numerical aperture requires a similar increase of the transmit fiber. Unfortunately, increasing the transmit fiber numerical aperture causes instability in received power over small misalignments. Double clad fibers offer a solution. These fibers transmit from a single mode core and receive light in a larger numerical aperture. Results show that as transceiver fibers, double clad fibers have an improved misalignment tolerance and a higher stability for small changes in misalignment when compared to single mode fibers and multimode fibers. Also, double clad fibers are shown to match the performance of an asymmetrical link design with a single mode transmit fiber and a multimode receive fiber.

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Section: Power Stability Under Small Alignment Changessupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploration of double clad fibers for increased stability of bidirectional free space optical links

Tedder

Schoenholz

Berkson

et al. 2018

Free-Space Laser Communication and Atmospheric Propagation XXX

Self Cite

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“…FSO systems built upon widely-available commercial components, such as SFPs and industry standard optical fibers, could allow for the rapid and effective deployment of high-speed communication links. Multi-mode (MM) fibers offer an interesting alternative, as these have a larger acceptance angle and spatial bandwidth, allowing for the efficient coupling of a received beam with an aberrated PSF due to turbulence [11,13,[26][27][28][29], as well as increased resilience to pointing errors [30][31][32]. However, intermodal coupling within MM fibers is commonly considered to limit their usage as effective transmitters for FSO applications because the higher-order output field will be considerably more divergent than an equivalent field created by an SM fiber based transmitter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-complexity turbulence resilience enabled by a multi-mode bi-directional transceiver

Daly,

Iga,

Boldin

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Free-space optical (FSO) communication systems are acutely affected by the pointing issues and distortions that result from mechanical instability and environmental factors such as turbulence. These distortions have generally prevented single-mode bi-directional systems from being deployed without adaptive optics due to high optical losses. We investigate and compare the performance of both step and graded index multi-mode fibers for bi-directional communications over an emulated 400 m FSO channel. We propose that OM5 graded index fiber will simultaneously provide a near Gaussian optical transmission mode and a factor of greater than 5 increase in the field of view compared to single-mode fiber. We demonstrate that OM5 can support an error-free throughput of 10 Gbps for low-turbulence (𝐷/𝑟0 = 3) and 9.1 Gbps for high-turbulence (𝐷/𝑟0 = 9) using commercial bi-directional small form-factor pluggable (SFP+) 19 transceivers with no adaptive optical components.

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“…In order to develop a low size weight and power (SWaP) solution, passive misalignment mitigation solutions are being investigated. In our past work 2 we presented data from a 20 meter FSOL which emulated a potential link between the ExPRESS (expedite the processing of experiments to the Space Station) Logistics Carrier (ELC) and the main cabin. The results of that work show that a passive system at 1 Gbps is capable of tolerating the ISS motion by leveraging two key components: an optimized divergence of the transmitted beam and the use of a 105 m core multi-mode fiber (MMF) optic cable to increase the receiver's field of view.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bit error rate performance on passive alignment in free space optical links using large core fibers

Schoenholz

Tedder

Millican

et al. 2018

Free-Space Laser Communication and Atmospheric Propagation XXX

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A 20-meter free-space optical link (FSOL) is proposed for data transmission between external ISS payload sites and the main cabin at a target rate of 10 Gbps (gigabits per second). Motion between a payload site and the main cabin is predicted to cause up to 5 cm in lateral misalignment and 0.2 degrees of angular misalignment. Due to the harsh environment of space it is advantageous to locate the optical transceivers inside the spacecraft or in a controlled environment. With the optical components and transceivers in separate locations, a fiber optic cable will be required to carry light between the two. In our past work we found that the use of large-core fibers provide an increased misalignment tolerance for such systems and could eliminate the need for active control of the optics. In that work, it was shown that a 105 m core diameter fiber optic cable offered a viable low SWaP (size, weight, and power) solution for the ISS application; however, the effects of modal dispersion were not investigated. This paper will present bit error rate performance of the FSOL using these large-core fibers.

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Study of Lateral Misalignment Tolerance of a Free Space Optical Link for the Development of an Intra ISS Point to Point Wireless Optical Link

Cited by 5 publications

References 1 publication

Exploration of double clad fibers for increased stability of bidirectional free space optical links

Exploration of double clad fibers for increased stability of bidirectional free space optical links

Low-complexity turbulence resilience enabled by a multi-mode bi-directional transceiver

Bit error rate performance on passive alignment in free space optical links using large core fibers

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