Extremely High Speed Avenues for Space Communications: Optical & W-band Waves

Kurzfassung

The current telecommunications marketplace is experiencing an ever increasing demand for high-speed services, and the traffic demand for satellite broadband is expected to grow six-fold by 2020. As part of the continuous migration towards higher frequency bands, Optical & W-band waves offer the promise of unprecedented bandwidth compared to current commercial solutions, leveraging enough bandwidth capable to cope with mid and long-term requirements. Together they can realize extremely high speed avenues for space communications in inter-satellite and feeder link applications. This tutorial focuses on giving a thorough overview of the different aspects and challenges to be taken into account when implementing GEO feeder links in the optical domain and W-band waves, including physical layer, channel model, modem, satellite payload and system level aspects. Particular attention is given to the feeder uplink scenario, which—as part of the forward link—presents itself as critical for the successful implementation of future extremely high throughput satellite systems. The tutorial will attempt to stress the practical challenges of these high frequency RF and optical technologies, proposing also ways forward in terms of necessary space and ground technology development, as well as open research directions.