TOWS: Introducing Optical Wireless for Satellites

Ciaramella, E.; Cossu, G.; Ertunc, Ezgi; Gilli, L.; Messa, A.; Rannello, M.; Presi, M.; Sturniolo, Alessandro; Bresciani, F.; Podda, V.

doi:10.1109/icton.2019.8840565

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Regarding TOWS scenarios, transmitter and receiver will work in a NLOS architecture for intra-SC and AIT scenarios, whilst they could use DLOS in the extra-SC communications [28]. According to these configuration differences, TX and RX will exploit different optoelectronic devices.…”

Section: Design Of the Optical Wireless Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this framework, European Space Agency (ESA) endorsed the project Transmission of Optical Wireless Signals for tele-com satellites (TOWS) that should develop novel and simple interfaces for MIL-STD-1553B bus to be transported over OWC so that they can be considered for practical deployment. To this aim, TOWS is proposing a distinctive approach by exclusively working at the physical layer [28]. Thus the cabled connections of the whole MIL-STD-1553B bus would be replaced seamlessly by wireless transmission without any other modification to the equipment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a key feature, the proposed transceivers will be fully analog and will work as a physical interface, maintaining the compatibility with the existing hardware, requiring no modification of the protocol and of the bus architecture: this is a key issue to keep the costs low, avoiding the need for smart devices, such as FPGAs or processors. In order to have practical relevance, the solution should have also other practical features: it should have minimal footprint, have low weight, and have low power consumption [28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…intra-SC, extra-SC and Assembly Integration and Test (AIT). Therefore, the developed hardware should implement a flexible architecture that can be easily tuned to the different application scenarios with only minor modifications of the hardware [28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Transporting MIL-STD-1553 Signals by Means of Optical Wireless Interfaces

Cossu¹,

Gilli²,

Ertunc³

et al. 2022

IEEE Photonics J.

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Today, the on-board Spacecraft (SC) communication requires an impressive network of massive wires, both in flight and in the Assembly Integration and Test (AIT) phase. Here, we present the design and the experimental characterization of novel Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) transceivers compatible with MIL-STD-1553B, which is the shared bus predominantly deployed in SCs. Each transceiver works as an interface that transports the bipolar Manchester-coded signal by converting it to/from the optical domain. These OWC interfaces can effectively reduce the overall weight and cost of the SC and can also largely decrease the AIT time.Since they are fully analog and do not need any microprocessors or Digital Signal Processing, they have a small footprint and a very low power consumption. We initially characterize the transceivers using a non-return-to-zero (NRZ) signal, then we used them to replace a cable and connect a pair of test units, transmitting MIL-STD-1553B signals: the measurements show that our solution has a good power budget (+65 dB), which will allow the interoperability with MIL-STD-1553B boards in a wide range of scenarios. Furthermore, it is realized by means of commercially available components; it could also be implemented by using proven space-graded devices.

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Section: Design Of the Optical Wireless Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Transporting MIL-STD-1553 Signals by Means of Optical Wireless Interfaces

Cossu¹,

Gilli²,

Ertunc³

et al. 2022

IEEE Photonics J.

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“…Although, the studies indicate low bandwidth and high power, LEDs are not suitable for reaching higher bandwidth and low power consumption. Therefore, recently, we proposed a new approach of OWC system for satellite communication [9][10] using COTS components having low-cost and low-power consumption. The system leverages on the most recent achievements for indoor OWC.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-throughput optical wireless solutions for intra-satellite communications

Ertunc¹,

Cossu²,

Messa³

et al. 2021

International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2020

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We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate a 100 Mb/s Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) system for 3U (30x30x30 centimeter) intra-CubeSat. The system has low power consumption and is made of low cost commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) components such as VCSEL, APD, Si-PD and common ball lenses. Since the system is for the 3U CubeSat, 40 cm distance between optical transceiver was targeted. We successfully designed the system and tested with 4 mm and 5 mm ball lenses to optimize our system for the future activities.

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Demonstrating Intra-Spacecraft Optical Wireless Links

et al. 2023

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In a Spacecraft (SC), a huge amount of cabled electrical connections is needed by many different units to exchange digital data. This increases the overall mass, the space occupancy, and the routing design time. Here, we propose and demonstrate an Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) system that can perfectly replace the MIL-STD-1553B cables inside the SC, providing wireless communication among the satellite units, with full backward compatibility with pre-existing units and protocols. We present the experimental demonstration in the challenging environment of a populated mockup of a real SC, where we connect four different units and exploit the Non Line-of-Sight (NLOS) configuration, i.e. take advantage of the scattering from the walls to overcome the shadowing effects. This OWC technique can effectively reduce the overall weight (more than 50%) and cost of the SC data network. The proposed transceivers are based on a transparent, fully analog solution and are made of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) components, with features compatible with the space environment. The on-field experiment shows that this is a practical solution for the data networks in future SCs.

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TOWS: Introducing Optical Wireless for Satellites

Cited by 10 publications

References 7 publications

Transporting MIL-STD-1553 Signals by Means of Optical Wireless Interfaces

Transporting MIL-STD-1553 Signals by Means of Optical Wireless Interfaces

High-throughput optical wireless solutions for intra-satellite communications

Demonstrating Intra-Spacecraft Optical Wireless Links

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