Long range field testing of free space optical communications terminals on mobile platforms

Author

Cunningham, Joseph J. ; Foulke, D. ; Goode, T. ; Baber, D. ; Gaughan, B. ; Fletcher, M. ; Young, David W ; Juarez, Juan C. ; Sluz, Joseph E. ; Riggins, J.L.

Author_Institution

ITT Corp., Beavercreek, OH, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

18-21 Oct. 2009

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

7

Abstract

Ground and air testing of mobile FALCON free-space optical (FSO) communications terminals was performed in New Mexico by ITT Corporation, JHU/APL and AFRL. The testing verified the operation of the terminals pointing, acquisition, tracking and data transmission for ground to ground link distances up to 36 km and air to air and air to ground link distances up to 65 km. The FALCON terminals have a nominal 2.5 gbps bidirectional data link. Packet goodput was generally 90% or better for the tests. Data will be presented on the pointing and acquisition sequence, tracking performance, received power and packet throughput. In addition, analysis of the atmospheric conditions and a comparison of actual performance to expected performance will be presented.

Keywords

aircraft communication; mobile communication; optical communication; optical links; telecommunication equipment testing; telecommunication terminals; ITT Corporation; New Mexico; air testing; air to ground link; bit rate 2.5 Gbit/s; data acquisition; data transmission; free space optical communications terminals; ground testing; ground to ground link; long range field testing; mobile FALCON terminals; packet throughput; terminals pointing; Costs; Error correction; Frequency selective surfaces; Interference; Military standards; Optical fiber communication; Proposals; Protection; Satellites; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Military Communications Conference, 2009. MILCOM 2009. IEEE

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5238-5

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-5239-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MILCOM.2009.5379846

Filename

5379846