High-bandwidth optical communications relay architecture
First Claim
1. A satellite for free space optical communication comprising:
- a plurality of optical telescopes for optical communication with a plurality of destinations,a plurality of optical beam expanders for receiving and transmitting optical signals from/to the plurality of destinations,a plurality of optical pre-amplifiers, each optically coupled to a respective optical beam expander for amplifying received optical signals;
a plurality of optical power amplifiers, each optically coupled to a respective optical beam expander for amplifying optical signals before transmission to the plurality of destinations,an optical multiplexor optically coupled to the plurality of optical pre-amplifiers for multiplexing amplified outputs of the optical pre-amplifiers;
an optical main amplifier optically coupled to the optical multiplexor for amplifying an output of the multiplexor;
an optical demultiplexer optically coupled to the optical main amplifier for demultiplexing an output of the optical main amplifier;
an optical switch optically coupled to the demultiplexer for directing the output of the optical main amplifier to a selected power amplifier to be transmitted to a selected destination by a respective optical beam expander.
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Abstract
A free space optical communication system (100) and method including a constellation of several satellites (102). Each of satellites including: several inter-satellite optical telescopes (204) for optical communication with multiple neighboring satellites, each inter-satellite optical telescope is capable of adjusting its elevation angle to accommodate changes in the number of satellites in the constellation; and several up/down link optical telescopes (206) for optical communication with multiple ground sites, where each ground site has several ground optical telescopes. As the constellation passes a given ground site, some of the up/down-link telescopes of a given satellite are configured to track at least two respective ground optical telescopes of the given ground site and send data to the ground optical telescope with the clearest line of sight to the given satellite. Moreover, each of the satellites includes optical circuitry (208, 210, 212, 216) for optically processing and switching incoming and outgoing optical signals without converting the optical signals into electrical signals.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A satellite for free space optical communication comprising:
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a plurality of optical telescopes for optical communication with a plurality of destinations, a plurality of optical beam expanders for receiving and transmitting optical signals from/to the plurality of destinations, a plurality of optical pre-amplifiers, each optically coupled to a respective optical beam expander for amplifying received optical signals; a plurality of optical power amplifiers, each optically coupled to a respective optical beam expander for amplifying optical signals before transmission to the plurality of destinations, an optical multiplexor optically coupled to the plurality of optical pre-amplifiers for multiplexing amplified outputs of the optical pre-amplifiers; an optical main amplifier optically coupled to the optical multiplexor for amplifying an output of the multiplexor; an optical demultiplexer optically coupled to the optical main amplifier for demultiplexing an output of the optical main amplifier; an optical switch optically coupled to the demultiplexer for directing the output of the optical main amplifier to a selected power amplifier to be transmitted to a selected destination by a respective optical beam expander. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A satellite for free space optical communication comprising:
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a plurality of optical telescopes for optical communication with a plurality of destinations, a plurality of optical beam expanders for receiving and transmitting optical signals from/to the plurality of destinations, a plurality of optical pre-amplifiers, each optically coupled to a respective optical beam expander for amplifying received optical signals; a plurality of optical power amplifiers, each optically coupled to a respective optical beam expander for amplifying optical signals before transmission to the plurality of destinations, a plurality of optical main amplifiers, each optically coupled to a respective one of the plurality of optical pre-amplifiers for amplifying outputs of the plurality of optical pre-amplifiers; an optical switch optically coupled to the plurality of optical main amplifiers for directing outputs of the plurality of optical main amplifier to a selected power amplifier to be transmitted to a selected destination by a respective optical beam expander. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification