KEYWORDS: Data transmission, Optical transmission, Telecommunications, Space operations, Satellites, Wireless communications, Optical communications, Data communications, Power consumption
The current on-board communication network in spacecrafts requires a significant amount of wires, leading to relevant issues in cost and occupied volume. Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) can eliminate the need for physical cables, reducing installation and maintenance costs and improving system flexibility. We propose and demonstrate an OWC system that provides wireless data transfer among the electronic units within the satellite. The system is now successfully operated with two popular wired communication protocols on satellites, i.e., CAN-bus and MIL-STD-1553B. It has completed backward compatibility with existing protocols. Moreover, as it requires no DSP, it results in an extremely small footprint and low power consumption. It can effectively reduce the overall weight and cost of the spacecraft data network, offering the potential for a groundbreaking change in spacecraft technology.
Optical Camera Communication (OCC) can be employed for indoor positioning and navigation, and it is suitable for environments where GPS signals are unavailable or unreliable. We developed a novel solution based on a network of Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps placed on the ceiling, where each lamp emits a unique identification (ID) code made of a few simple sine waves. The code is detected by the camera sensor exploiting the rolling shutter and ad-hoc signal processing which does not need synchronization. The system only requires a single image to recognize different IDs captured by the camera, reducing the power consumption of the device. The position can operate in coarse and fine modes, with meter and centimeter accuracy, respectively. In both cases, a single LED lamp is enough for localization.
The MIL-STD-1553B is one of the most used data buses for communication over aircraft and satellites. It requires a large amount of cables to connect all the onboard devices, therefore one of the most challenging issues in Spacecrafts (SCs) design is how to arrange all of them. Moreover, these wired communication systems represent up to 10% of the total mass of the satellite, introducing constraints on the cost of the mission launch and reducing the available room inside the satellite. We present here a novel system that can transport the MIL-STD-1553B signal over optical wireless, effectively removing wired connections. This can save weight and space while maintaining high performance and backward compatibility. We achieved these results by developing an innovative transceiver (TRX) board. The presented Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) system does not suffer from sniffing/jamming or from multipath interference. Moreover, it encompasses only Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) components, so that no special technological development is needed and we can keep its cost low. Here, we first shortly summarize our approach and then discuss how it can be used to deploy OWC links over a SC. To this aim, our system can interface the MIL-STD-1553B data bus with the OWC devices without any modification of the protocol and of the bus architecture.
Nowadays, one of the key issues when designing a Spacecraft (S/C) is to accommodate bundle of wires. The harness in the traditional wired communication poses relevant problems during the Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT) phase. Therefore, the space industry is actively considering wireless solutions for next satellite missions. A solution to these issues can be represented by the Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) systems. They show many advantages over traditional wired communication and wireless RF systems, which include reduction of harness mass, electrical isolation and immunity to Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI). Recently, the European Space Agency (ESA) funded a project to prove the implementation feasibility of the OWC for intra-S/C, extra-S/C and AIT. The last scenario is expected to be the first to adopt OWC, thanks to the lowest risks associated with the choice of this application scenario. Here we present and demonstrate a new OWC system design for typical AIT scenarios. The system implements a bidirectional communication between S/C devices to the Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE), able to replace the MIL-STD-1553B connection cables. This is achieved by means of optical transceivers realized exploiting only low-cost and Commercial Offthe-Shelf (COTS) components. Here, the characterizations of the Transceiver (TRX) results are reported, the measured receiver sensitivity is compatible with expected received optical power in the AIT scenario. Therefore, the systems performance was tested transmitting a MIL-STD-1553B signal. We also measured the received optical power and calculated the link margin.
KEYWORDS: Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, Signal detection, Signal to noise ratio, Modulation, Wireless communications, Telecommunications
We experimentally demonstrate up to 40 Gbit/s optical wireless communication (OWC) systems made of commercial offthe- shelf components (COTS). The OWC systems use Non-Return to Zero (NRZ) or adaptive Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), do not need active alignment and are designed to provide high-speed wireless connectivity in Data-Centers (DCs) or similar environments.
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