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High-bandwidth optical communications relay architecture

  • US 8,913,894 B2
  • Filed: 07/13/2012
  • Issued: 12/16/2014
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2012
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A free space optical communication system comprising:

  • a constellation of a plurality of satellites, each of the plurality of satellites comprising;

    a plurality of inter-satellite optical telescopes for optical communication with multiple neighboring satellites, and wherein each inter-satellite optical telescope is capable of adjusting its elevation angle to accommodate changes in the number of satellites in the constellation, anda plurality of up/down link optical telescopes for optical communication with multiple ground sites, each ground site having two or more ground optical telescopes,wherein as the satellite constellation passes a given ground site, one or more of the up/down-link telescopes of a given satellite are configured to track at least two ground optical telescopes of the given ground site, determine a line of site for each of the at least two ground optical telescopes of the given ground site, and send data to a ground optical telescope with the clearest line of sight to the given satellite.

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