Overview of international experiment campaign with small optical transponder (SOTA)

From Connectivity to Advanced Internet Services: A Comprehensive Review of Small Satellites Communications and Networks

“…With the use of laser communication terminals in systems like the European Data Relay System (EDRS) [29] for intersatellite links, the technology has passed the barrier from research to the operational application. Concerning downlinks from satellite to Earth, a number of demonstrations have been performed in recent years, like the Small Optical Transponder (SOTA) experiment [30] of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, which used a dedicated satellite, or the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) experiment [31] of the NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (NASA-JPL), which demonstrated optical downlinks from the International Space Station (ISS). The Aerospace Corporation demonstrated an optical downlink from a 1.5U-CubeSat [32].…”

Experimental results of satellite-to-ground laser communications link through atmospheric turbulence using SOTA

“…In approximately August 2014, the SOTA experiments began, and in April 2015 the international SOTA experiments campaign started. European Space Agency (ESA), German Aerospace Center (DLR), Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are participating in the experiments [7,8]. In Spring 2016, we resumed the SOTA international experiment campaign.…”

Update on DLR's OSIRIS program

“…Especially the market for small satellites is continuously growing [1]. Therefore, parties around the globe study and demonstrate optical satellite downlinks [2][3][4][5]. Main advantages are the potentially higher data rates (tens to hundreds of Gigabit-persecond are feasible in the mid-term), the fact that the optical spectrum is unregulated and no licensing is required, and the generally smaller SWaP compared to State-Of-The-Art RF systems.…”