Design and development of robust ATP subsystem for the Altair UAV-to-ground lasercomm 2.5-Gbps demonstration

Ortiz, G.G.; Lee, Shinhak; Monacos, Steve; Wright, Malcolm W.; Biswas, Abhijit

doi:10.1117/12.478939

Cited by 35 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The ground station consists of a 40 cm Cassegrain Telescope and has been used in a similar configuration as described in [1] except that the beacon wavelength has been changed to 1590 nm. The TOGS will not be described in more detail here.…”

Section: System Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aircraft to ground unidirectional laser-communications terminal for high-resolution sensors

Horwath

Fuchs

2009

SPIE Proceedings

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Real-time monitoring allows new possibilities in applications like disaster management or traffic observation and guidance. The German Aerospace Center is currently developing an aircraft based observation system. Among other sensors a high resolution camera platform together with an optical downlink terminal is an integral part of the system. The optical terminal was tested in the first stage of expansion in November and December 2008. At distances up to 85 km the achieved mean tracking offset with pure CPA tracking was 266 µrad. Initial communication tests have been successfully performed up to a distance of 40 km.

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Section: System Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aircraft to ground unidirectional laser-communications terminal for high-resolution sensors

Horwath

Fuchs

2009

SPIE Proceedings

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“…Here, the optical head is integrated in a modified Wescam turret attached to the very nose of a BAC 1-11 aircraft. Another turret design is demonstrated with an optical link between an Altair Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and a ground station [12]. An alternative design to the turret version is integration of the actual terminal inside the aircraft body by using an integrated opto-mechanical pointing and tracking assembly for the beam steering.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demonstration of High-Rate Laser Communications From a Fast Airborne Platform

Moll

Horwath

Shrestha

et al. 2015

IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun.

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In this paper, we report on the demonstration of a high-rate free-space optical communication downlink from a fast airborne platform to a ground station. The flight platform used was a Panavia Tornado with a laser communication terminal installed in an attached avionic demonstrator pod. A transportable optical ground station equipped with a free-space receiver frontend was used as the receiver station. Downlink wavelength for communication and uplink wavelength for beacon laser were chosen to be compatible with the C-band DWDM grid. New opto-mechanical tracking systems were developed and applied on both sides for link acquisition and stabilization. The flight tests were carried out at the end of November 2013 near the Airbus Defence & Space location in Manching, Germany. The campaign successfully demonstrated the maturity and readiness of laser communication for aircraft downlinks at a data rate of 1.25 Gbit/s. We outline the experiment design based on link budget assessments, the developed opto-mechanical terminal technology, and the results of the flight campaign. The experiment itself focused on the tracking performance of the airborne terminal and the ground station. Performance could be measured at aircraft speeds up to Mach 0.7 and video data from an onboard camera was transmitted. Tracking accuracies of up to 20 µrad rms for the airborne terminal and the ground station were achieved at instantaneous tracking errors below 60 µrad and 40 µrad, respectively. The tracking link worked up to a horizontal distance of 79 km and data transmission was possible up to 50 km.

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“…Tracking tests with a cabin installed terminal transmitting through the window of a Boeing 767-200 are reported in [2], data-transmission from a Twin Otter aircraft in [3], [4] and validation tests of a space-terminal installed in a similar manner in a Cessna 206 aircraft are described in [5]. A modified Wescam turret integrated in the nose of a BAC 1-11 aircraft for a 200 km aircraft-mountain link is described in [6] and further turret designs are demonstrated with an Altair Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle [7] and a Twin Otter aircraft [8]. Alternatively to the turret and cabin design, one can employ the fuselage integrated design (number 3) and thus install it inside the aircraft body as explained in [9] for an experimental system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demonstration of high-rate laser communications from fast airborne platform: flight campaign and results

Moll

Mitzkus

Horwath³

et al. 2014

SPIE Proceedings

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Some current and future airborne payloads like high resolution cameras and radar systems need high channel capacity to transmit their data from air to ground in near real-time. Especially in reconnaissance and surveillance missions, it is important to downlink huge amount of data in very short contact times to a ground station during a flyby. Aeronautical laser communications can supply the necessary high data-rates for this purpose. Within the project DODfast (Demonstration of Optical Data link fast) a laser link from a fast flying platform was demonstrated. The flight platform was a Panavia Tornado with the laser communication terminal installed in an attached avionic demonstrator pod. The air interface was a small glass dome protecting the beam steering assembly. All other elements were integrated in a small box inside the Pod's fuselage. The receiver station was DLR's Transportable Optical Ground Station equipped with a free-space receiver front-end. Downlink wavelength for communication and uplink wavelength for beacon laser were chosen from the optical C-band DWDM grid. The test flights were carried out at the end of November 2013 near the Airbus Defence and Space location in Manching, Germany. The campaign successfully demonstrated the maturity and readiness of laser communication with a data-rate of 1.25 Gbit/s for aircraft downlinks. Pointing, acquisition and tracking performance of the airborne terminal and the ground station could be measured at aircraft speed up to 0.7 Mach and video data from an onboard camera has been transmitted. Link distances with stable tracking were up to 79 km and distance with data transmission over 50 km. In this paper, we describe the system architecture, the flight campaign and the results.

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Design and development of robust ATP subsystem for the Altair UAV-to-ground lasercomm 2.5-Gbps demonstration

Cited by 35 publications

References 2 publications

Aircraft to ground unidirectional laser-communications terminal for high-resolution sensors

Aircraft to ground unidirectional laser-communications terminal for high-resolution sensors

Demonstration of High-Rate Laser Communications From a Fast Airborne Platform

Demonstration of high-rate laser communications from fast airborne platform: flight campaign and results

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