FREE SPACE LASER COMMUNICATIONS

SEMINAR REPORT 2004

DONE BY:

SUBIN.K.M
S7 ECE
ROLL NO: 01- 651

GOVERNMENT ENGINEERING COLLEGE,

THRISSUR – 680009
CONTENTS

1. ABSTRACT
2. INTRODUCTION
3. FEATURES OF LASER COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM
4. OPERATION
5. ACQUISITION AND TRACKING
6. OPTICAL NOISE
7. SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS AND DESCRIPTON
8. LINK PARAMETERS
9. TRANSMITTER PARAMETERS
10.CHANNEL PARAMETERS
11.RECEIVER PARAMETERS
12.DETECTOR PARAMETERS
13.AN EXAMPLE
14.APPLICATIONS
15.ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
16.CONCLUSIONS
17.REFERENCES
 ABSTRACT

Laser communications offer a viable alternative to RF

communications for intersatellite links and other applications
where high-performance links are necessity. High data rate,
small antenna size, narrow beam divergence, and a narrow
field of view are characteristics of laser communication that
offer a number of potential advantages for system design.

1.
 INTRODUCTION

Lasers have been considered for space communications since their

realization in 1960. However, it was soon recognized that, although
the laser had potential for the transfer of data at extremely high rates,
specific advancements were needed in component performance and
systems engineering, particularly for space-qualified hardware.
Advances in system architecture, data formatting, and component
technology over the past three decades have made laser
communications in space not only a viable but also a attractive
approach to intersatellite link applications.

The high data rate and large information throughput available

with laser communications are many times greater than in radio
frequency (RF) systems. The small antenna size requires only a
small increase in the weight and volume of host vehicle. In addition,
this feature substantially reduces blockage of fields of view of the
most desirable areas on satellites. The smaller antennas, with
diameters typically less than 30cm, create less momentum
disturbance to any sensitive satellite sensors. Fewer onboard
consumables are required over the long lifetime because there is less
disturbance to the satellite compared with larger and heavier RF
systems. The narrow beam divergence of affords interference-free
and secure operation.

2.
 FEATURES OF LASER COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

A block diagram of typical terminal is illustrated in Fig 1. Information,

typically in the form of digital data, is input to data electronics that
modulates the transmitting laser source. Direct or indirect modulation
techniques may be employed depending on the type of laser
employed. The source output passes through an optical system into
the channel. The optical system typically includes transfer, beam
shaping, and telescope optics. The receiver beam comes in through
the optical system and is passed along to detectors and signal
processing electronics. There are also terminal control electronics
that must control the gimbals and other steering mechanisms, and
servos, to keep the acquisition and tracking system operating in the
designed modes of operation.

Transmit beam
Transmit
laser
source Optics
Receive beam

Transmit Detector
data and signal
electronics processing
To/from
host data
system
Terminal control
electronics

From host
Power Power To equipment Structure Thermal
system regulator groups

Figure 1. A block diagram of a typical laser communication terminal.

3.
 The extremely high antenna gain made possible by the narrow
beams enables small telescope apertures to be used. Plots of
aperture diameter Vs. data rate for millimeter and optical waves are
shown in Fig 2. A laser communications system operating at 1 Gb/s
requires an aperture of approximately 30 cm. In contrast, a 1 Gb/s
millimeter wave system requires a significantly larger aperture, 2-2.75
m.

The laser beamwidth can be made as narrow as the diffraction

limit of the optics allows. This is given by the beamwidth equal to 1.22
times the wavelength of the light, divided by the radius of the output
beam aperture. This antenna gain is proportional to the reciprocal of
the beamwidth squared. The most important point here is that to
achieve the potential diffraction-limited beamwidth given by the
telescope diameter, a single-mode high-beam-quality laser source is

4.
required, together with very high-quality optical components
throughout the transmitting subsystem. The beam quality cannot be
better than the worst element in the optical chain, so the possible
antenna gain will be restricted not only by the laser source itself, but
also by any of the optical elements, including the final mirror or
telescope primary. Because of the requirement for both high
efficiency and high beam quality, many lasers that are suitable in
other applications are unsuitable for long distance free-space
communication. In order to communicate, adequate power must be
received by the detector to distinguish signal from noise. Laser
power, transmitter optical system losses, pointing system
imperfections, transmitter and receiver antenna gains, receiver
losses, and receiver tracking losses are all factors in establishing
receiver power. The required optical power is determined by data
rate, detector sensitivity, modulation formats, noise, and detection
methods.

5.
When the receiver is detecting signals, it is actually making decisions
as to the nature of the signal (when digital signal are being sent it
distinguishes between ones and zeros). Fig 3. shows the probability
of detection vs. measured photocurrent in a decision time. There are
two distributions: one when a signal is present (including the amount
of photocurrent due to background and dark current in the detector),
and one when there is no signal present (including only the nonsignal
current sources). A threshold must be set that maximizes the success
rate and minimizes the error rate. One can see that different types of
errors will occur. Even when there is no signal present, the fluctuation
of the nonsignal sources will periodically cause the threshold to be
exceeded. This is the error of stating that a signal is present when
there is no signal present. The signal distribution may also fall on the
other side of the threshold, so errors stating that no signal is present
will occur even when a signal is present. For laser communication
systems in general, one wants to equalize these two error types. In
the acquisition mode, however, no attempt is made to equalize these
errors since this would increase acquisition time.

6.
 OPERATION

Free space laser communications systems are wireless connections

through the atmosphere. They work similar to fiber optic cable
systems except the beam is transmitted through open space. The
carrier used for the transmission of this signal is generated by either a
high power LED or a laser diode. The laser systems operate in the
near infrared region of the spectrum. The laser light across the link is
at a wavelength of between 780 – 920 nm. Two parallel beams are
used, one for transmission and one for reception.

Figure 4: MAGNUM 45 High-Speed Laser-Communication System (Source:

LSA Photonics)

7.
 ACQUISITION AND TRACKING

There are three basic steps to laser communication: acquisition,

tracking, and communications. Of the three, acquisition is generally
the most difficult; angular tracking is usually the easiest.
Communications depends on bandwidth or data rate, but is generally
easier than acquisition unless very high data rates are required.
Acquisition is the most difficult because laser beams are typically
much smaller than the area of uncertainty. Satellites do not know
exactly where they are or where the other platform is located, and
since everything moves with some degree of uncertainty, they cannot
take very long to search or the reference is lost. Instability of the
platforms also causes uncertainty in time. In the ideal acquisition
method, shown in Figure 4, the beamwidth of the source is greater
than the angle of uncertainty in the location of receiver. The receiver
field of includes the location uncertainty of the transmitter.
Unfortunately, this ideal method requires a significant amount of laser
power.

8.
 It is possible to operate a number of laser types at high peak
power and low duty cycle to make acquisition easier. This is because
a lower pulse rate is needed for acquisition than for tracking and
communications. High peak power pulses more easily overcome the
receiver set threshold and keep the false alarm rate low. A low duty
cycle transmitter gives high peak power, yet requires less average
power, and is thus a suitable source for acquisition. As the
uncertainty area becomes less, it becomes more feasible to use a
continues source of acquisition, especially if the acquisition time does
not have to be short.

9.
 OPTICAL NOISE

Noise characteristics play an important role in laser communication

systems. At optical frequencies noise characteristics are significantly
different than those at radio frequencies. In the RF domain, quantum
noise is quite low, while thermal noise predominates and does not
vary with frequency in the microwave region. However, as the
wavelength gets shorter, quantum noise increases linearly, and in the
laser regime thermal noise drops off very rapidly, becoming
insignificant at optical wavelengths. Because there is so little energy
in a photon at radio frequencies, it takes many problems to equal the
thermal noise. The quantum noise is actually the statistical
fluctuations of the photons, which is the limiting sensitivity at optical
frequencies. However, in optical receivers employing direct detection
and avalanche photodiodes, the detection process does not approach
the quantum limit performance. For this type of optical receiver, the
thermal noise due to the preamplifier is usually a significant
contributor to the total noise power.

Free space optical communication links, atmospheric

turbulence causes fluctuations in both the intensity and the phase of
the received light signal, impairing link performance. Atmospheric
turbulence can degrade the performance of free-space optical links,
particularly over ranges of the order of 1 km or longer.
Inhomogeneities in the temperature and pressure of the atmosphere
lead to variations of the refractive index along the transmission path.
These index inhomogeneities can deteriorate the quality of the
received image and can cause fluctuations in both the intensity and
the phase of the received signal.

10.
These fluctuations can lead to an increase in the link error probability,
limiting the performance of communication systems. Aerosol
scattering effects caused by rain, snow and fog can also degrade the
performance of free-space optical communication systems.

The primary background noise is the sun. The solar spectral

radiance extends from the ultraviolet to the infrared, with the peak in
the visible portion of the spectrum. Atmospheric scattered sunlight,
sunlit clouds, the planets, the moon, and the Earth background have
similar radiances; the sun’s radiance is much higher and a star field’s
much lower. A star field is an area of the sky that includes a number
of stars. If one were able to look only at an individual star, one would
find a brightness similar to that of the sun; but a star field as a whole
is composed of small point sources of light, the stars in the field,
against a dark area having no background level. The background is
reduced by making both the field of view and the spectral width as
narrow as possible. For direct detection systems, narrow field of view
spectral filters on the order of 20A*(2 nm) are typical. Heterodyne
systems will enable further reduction, but with a increase in terminal
complexity. However, some systems can be signal-quantum-noise-
limited, rather than background-limited, without having to resort to
heterodyne detection.

11.
 SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS AND DESCRIPTON

Here we discuss specific key system characteristics which, which

when quantified, together give a detailed description of a typical laser
communication system. Key system characteristics are identified and
subsequently quantified for a particular application. In the first part of
this section we identify the key parameters that make up a link table
listing. In the second part, we will describe how a link analysis is used
to provide a description of a laser communications cross-link
operating at 10 Mb /s. This low data rate is only used as an example
and gives a point of reference for RF systems of similar performance.
Key system characteristics or parameters must be identified and
quantified to fully describe the system. Critical parameters can be
grouped in to five major categories: link, transmitter, channel,
receiver, and detector parameters. Free-space laser communications
is a very flexible means to connect end users to a high-bandwidth
data network via ground-based terminals on top of buildings or to
bring a variety of data services to remote locations via satellite
terminals in space. External influences on the optical link due to
atmospheric turbulence and vibrations in the transmitter's
environment require some method of beam control to stabilize the
optical link and maintain a high transmission rate. Liquid crystal (LC)
optics can provide a compact and low-power solution to beam control
in laser communications systems.

12.
 LINK PARAMETERS

The link parameters are the type of laser, wavelength, type of

link, and required signal criteria. Although virtually every laser type
has been considered at one time of another, today the lasers typically
used in free space laser communications system are either
semiconductor laser diodes, solid state lasers, or fiber
amplifiers/lasers. Laser sources are typically described as operating
in either single or multiple longitudinal modes. In single longitudinal
mode operation the laser emits radiation at a single frequency, while
in multiple longitudinal mode operation multiple frequencies are
emitted. Single-mode sources are required in coherent detection
systems and typically have spectral widths of the order of 10 kHz-
10MHz. Multimode sources are employed in direct detection systems
and typically have spectral widths from 1.5 to 10 nm.

Semiconductor lasers have been in development for

the three decades and have only recently (within last five years)
demonstrated the levels of performance needed for reliable operation
as direct sources. Typically operating in the 800-900 nm range
(gallium arsenide/gallium aluminum arsenide, GaAs/GaAlAs, material
system), their inherently high efficiency (approaching 50%) and small
size made this technology attractive. However key issues have been
the lifetimes, asymmetric beam shape, and output power. Research
into integrated phased arrays proved to be more challenging than first
anticipated, forcing the use of single emitters and output powers in
the 100-150mW range. Inherent beam combiners employing
wavelength-division multiplex or other techniques were employed for
those application requiring greater power.

13.
 Solid state lasers have offered higher power levels and the ability
to operate in high peak power modes for acquisition. When diode
lasers are used to optically pump the lasing media graceful
degradation and higher overall reliability (compared to lamp pumped
systems) is achieved. A variety of materials have been proposed for
laser transmitters; however, neodymium doped yttrium aluminum
garnet (Nd:YAG) is the most widely developed. Operating at 1064nm,
these lasers require an external modulator, leading to a slight
increase in complexity and reliability. The modulator must be capable
of operating at required pulse rates as well as handling the power
levels from the laser.

With the rapid development of terrestrial fiber communications,

a wide array of components are available for potential application in
space. These include detectors, lasers, multiplexers, amplifiers, drive
electronics, optical preamplifiers, and others. Operating at 1500 nm,
erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) have been developed for
commercial optical fiber communications that offer levels of
performance consistent with many free-space laser communications
applications (500mW range). Issues here revolved around the space
qualification of terrestrial components and the desire to achieve as
much performance (i.e., laser power) as possible to keep telescope
apertures small.

There are three basic link types: acquisition, tracking, and

communications. The major differences between the link types are
reflected in the required signal criteria for each. For acquisition, the
criteria are typically the acquisition time, false alarm rate, probability
of detection, and, if a multiple detection scheme is used, how many
detections m (of the total number possible, n) are required. For the
tracking link, the key consideration is the amount of angle error
induced by the receiver circuitry.

14.
This angle error is commonly referred to as noise effective
length (NEA), and depends on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the
angular sensitivity of the tracking detector, and the characteristics of
the tracking control loops. For the communications link, the key
considerations are the required data and bit error rates. Also of prime
importance, once a laser type is selected, is the modulation format
used to impress information on the laser carrier. A brief description of
the required signal calculations for each of the three major link types
is given laser in this section.

Figure 6. Photo of 1.55-_m high power diode

laser FSO system by Terabeam.

15.
 TRANSMITTER PARAMETERS

The transmission parameters consist of certain

key laser characteristics, losses incurred in the transmit optical path,
transmit antenna gain, and transmit pointing loss. The key laser
characteristics include peak and average optical power, pulse rate,
and pulse width. In a pulsed configuration the peak laser power and
duty cycles are specified, while in continues-wave applications the
average power is specified. In a pulsed application the pulse rate and
width describe the laser’s temporal performance. In continues-wave
applications, such as coherent communication employing frequency
shift keying (FSK) or phase shift keying (PSK), the pulse rate and
width describe the symbol rate and symbol duration of the data
impressed on the laser carrier.

Transmit optical path loss is made up of optical

transmission losses and loss due to the wave-front quality of the
transmitting optics, degrading the theoretical far-field on-axis gain.
The wave front error loss is analogous to the surface roughness loss
associated with RF antennas. The optical transmit antenna gain is
exactly analogous to the antenna gain in RF systems, and describes
the on-axis gain relative to an isotropic radiator with the distribution of
the transmitted laser radiation defining the transmit antenna gain.

16.
 The laser sources suitable to the free-space laser communications
trend to exhibit a Gaussian intensity distribution in the main lobe. The
reduction in the far-field signal strength due to transmitter mispointing
is the transmitter pointing loss. For each link in a laser system, a
pointing budget must be determined. The pointing budget is typically
composed of bias (slowly varying) and random (more rapidly varying)
components. The bias components are the alignment and detector
gain mismatch errors; the random components are the NEA and
residual error due to base motion disturbances.

For a system employing a Gaussian beam, where the pointing

loss is predominantly a bias, the on-axis transmitted gain-pointing
loss product is maximized when the1/e2 beamwidth is set equal to
approximately 2.8 times the pointing error. Increasing antenna
diameter further (decreasing the 1/e beamwidth) will degrade
performance. When pointing error is a combination of bias and
random terms, a somewhat more complex expression must be
evaluated. The point to stress here is that once the pointing error is
determined, the system beamwidth must be sized appropriately.

17.
 CHANNEL PARAMETERS

The channel parameters for an optical intersatellite link

(ISI) consist of the range and associated loss, background spectral
radiance, and spectral irradiance. Since this article deals with ISLs,
losses due to the atmosphere are not considered. These losses can
be quite large and mitigation of the effects complex. The range loss is
simply RL = (l/(4pR))2, where R is the separation between the two
platforms in meters, and l is the wavelength. The background level
depends on the relative altitudes of the platforms, the time of the
year, and the wavelength selected.

18.
 RECEIVER PARAMETERS

The receiver parameters are the receiver antenna gain, the

receiver optical path loss, the optical filter bandwidth
and the receiver field of view. The receiver antenna gain is given by
GR = (pDR/l)2 where D is the effective receiver diameter diameters in
meters. The receiver optical path loss is simply the optical
transmission loss for systems employing direct detection techniques.
However, for laser systems employing coherent optical detection
(either homodyne or heterodyne) there is an additional loss due to
wavefront error. The preservation of the wavefront quality is essential
for optical mixing of the received signal and local oscillator fields on
the detector surface. To first order, the loss expression is the same
as that previously defined for the transmit wavefront error.

The optical filter bandwidth specifies the spectral width of the

narrow-bandpass filter employed in optical intersatellite links. Optical
filter reduce the amount of unwanted background entering the
system. The optical width of the filter must be compatible with the
spectral width of the laser source. In addition to source
considerations, the minimum width also be determined by the
acceptable transmission level of the filter; typically the transmission of
the filter decreases with spectral width.

19.
 The final receiver parameter to be discussed is the angular field of
view (FOV), in radians, which limits the background power of an
extended source incident on the detector. To maximize background
rejection, the FOV should be as small as possible, since for the
typically small angles considered (< 1 mrad) the background power
incident on the detector is proportional to FOV. However, the
minimum FOV is limited by optical design constraints and the receiver
pointing capability. Optical design constraints require the FOV to
satisfy the expression FOV = DD/FL, where DD is the detector
diameter in meters and FL is the system focal length in meters (both
DD and FL is limited by the practical considerations). The receiver
FOV must be greater than the receiver pointing capability so that the
received signal spot falls onto the detector surface.

20.
 DETECTOR PARAMETERS

The detector parameters are the type of detector, gain of

the detector (if any), quantum efficiency, heterodyne mixing efficiency
(for coherent detection only), noise due to the detector, noise due to
the following preamplifier, and (for track links) angular sensitivity or
slope factor of the detector.

For optical ISLs based on semiconductor laser diodes or Nd:

YAG lasers, the detector of choice is a p-type-intrinsic-n-type (PIN) or
an avalanche photodiode (APD). A PIN photodiode can be operated
in the photovoltaic or photoconductive mode, and has no internal gain
mechanism. An APD is always operated in the photoconductive mode
and has internal gain by virtue of the avalanche multiplication
process. At shorter wavelengths (810-900 nm) PINs and APDs made
of silicon show the best response, but at longer wavelengths (1300-
1550 nm) InGaAs and Ge APDs have significantly more excess noise
than comparable silicon devices. For application requiring gain and
operating at Nd: YAG wavelengths, a silicon APD is typically
preferred because of its internal gain. However, if gain is not required
an InGaAs PIN would be preferred because of the higher quantum
efficiency. The quantum efficiency, h, of the detector is the efficiency
with which the detector converts incident photons to electrons.

21.
The mean output current for both PINs and APDs is proportional to
the quantum efficiency. By definition, quantum efficiencies are always
less than unity. For silicon detectors operating at GaAlAs
wavelengths, h = 0.85-0.9, while at the Nd: YAG wavelength h may
be only 0.4. For InGaAs detectors, operated at InGaAsP and Nd:
YAG wavelengths, h is about 0.8.

Another detector parameter to consider is the

noise due to the detector alone. Typically, in detector there is a DC
current even in the absence of signal or background. This DC “dark”
current, as it is commonly called, produces a shot-noise current just
as the signal and background currents do. In an APD there are two
contributors to the total dark current: an unmultiplied current and a
multiplied current. The multiplication is provided by the avalanche
gain mechanism and, as expected, for typical operating gains (>50)
the multiplied term is dominant. In a PIN photodiode there is only the
unmultiplied term.

The output of the detector is input to a preamplifier that

converts the detector signal current into a voltage and amplifies it to a
workable level for further processing. Being the first element past the
detector, the noise due to the preamplifier have a significant effect on
the system’s sensitivity. The selection of preamplifier design
(transimpedance or high impedance), internal transistor design
(bipolar or FET), and device material (GaAs or silicon) depends on a
number of factors. Transimpedance designs have greater dynamic
range, but are nominally less sensitive than high-impedance designs.
Silicon bipolar transistors may come from a more mature technology,
but GaAs FETs have a higher bandwidth capability and are inherently
radiation resistant.

22.
 AN EXAMPLE

Here we give a simple example of hoe the parameters just described

are used in link analysis to design a laser communications system
capable supporting a full duplex 10 Mb/s geosynchronous orbit cross-
link. The detailed link analysis is not covered in this article but
employs all of the element described above. To size the system,
however, a link analysis for the communications function was
performed. The source peak power requirement, 3 dB of the system
margin, was determined to be 0.6 W. A semiconductor laser diode
beam combiner is assumed for the transmitter source employing four
lasers at 150 mW each.

A 5 in aperture was determined to produce a beamwidth

compatible with the fine-track pointing budget of 4.0 mrad. The
pointing budget was determined by assuming a tracking system
employing both fine-steering mirrors and a gimballed telescope. The
transmit and receive optics efficiencies are representatives of nominal
values achievable totally in similar systems. The peak received signal
power was determined to be 1.64 nW from the assumed parameter
values given.

23.
The diode laser source is modulated directly in a Manchester
modulation format by changing the drive current to the diodes. The
link employs a rate ½, constraint length 7 convolutional code with
Viterbi decoding and hard decisions. This permits the link to operate
at a higher channel symbol error rate (0.014), but still produce a
decoded bit error rate of 10−6 . the code employed yields
approximately 2 dB of coding gain for direct detection laser
communications link. A quadrant APD was selected as the detector
because of its compactness, high reliability, and high sensitivity
(compared to a PIN photodiode). The desired communications signal
was obtained by summing the four quadrants. It is assumed that 0.6
W of laser power is adequate to support the acquisition and track
functions. This example is representative of a typical laser
communications system for satellite applications.

24.
 APPLICATIONS

Depending on the climatic zone where the free space laser communications
systems are used, they can span distances up to 15 km at low bitrates or
provide bitrates up to 622 Mbps at shorter distances. The systems are
protocol transparent allowing transmission of digital computer data (LAN
interconnect), video, voice over IP, multiplexed data, or ATM. They are
suitable for temporary connectivity needs such as at conventions, sporting
events, corporate and university campuses, disaster scenes or military
operations.

25.
 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Free space laser communications links eliminate the need for

securing right of ways, and buried cable installations. As the
equipments operate within the near infrared spectrum, they are not
subject to government licensing and no spectrum fees have to be
paid (according to Art. 7 in [3] requires only the use of the frequency
spectrum below 3’000 GHz a licence). Additionally, since no radio
interference studies are necessary, the systems are quickly
deployable. The narrow laser beamwidth precludes interference with
other communication systems of this type. Free space laser
communications systems provide only interconnection between
points that have direct line-of-sight. They can transmit through glass,
however, for each glass surface the light intensity is reduced, due to
a mixture of absorption and refraction, thus reducing the operational
distance of a sys-tem. Occasionally, short interruptions or
unavailability events lasting from some hours up to a few days can
occur.

26.
 CONCLUSIONS

The system and component technology necessary for

successful intersatellite laser communication link exist today. The
growing requirements for efficient and secure communications has
led to increased interest in the operational deployment of laser
crosslinks for commercial and military satellite systems in both low
earth and geosynchronous orbits. With the dramatic increase in the
data handling requirement for satellite communication services, laser
intersatellite links offer an attractive alternative to RF with virtually
unlimited growth potential and an unregulated spectrum. The
demonstration programs underway in the United States, Europe, and
Japan will show the way for future large-scale applications of laser
communications to satellite cross-links.

27.
REFERENCES

1. IEEE communications Magazine. August 2000, free space

laser communications :Laser cross-link systems and technology
by: David L. Begley, Ball Aerospace & technologies corporation

2. Chaotic Free-Space Laser Communication over a Turbulent

Channel By: N. F. Rulkov,1 M. A. Vorontsov, and L. Illing
institute for Nonlinear Science, University of California,
San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093
Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, Maryland 20783

3. Free Space Optics or Laser Communication through the Air

BY: Dennis Killinger Optics & Photonics News ■ October
2002

4. High data-rate laser transmitters for free-space laser

Communications. BY:A. Biswas, H. Hemmati and J. R. Lesh
Optical Communications Group Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
California Institute of Technology

28.