Demonstration of high-rate laser communications from a fast airborne platform

Abstract

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 was a Panavia Tornado with a laser communication terminal installed in an attached avionic demonstrator pod. The receiver station was a transportable optical ground station equipped with a free-space receiver front-end. 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 system 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. Pointing, acquisition and tracking performance of the airborne terminal and the ground station could be measured at aircraft speeds up to 0.7 Mach, and video data from an onboard camera has been transmitted. We report on the experiment design based on link budget assessments, the developed terminal technology and the results of the flight campaign.