Free space optics (FSO) is considered a promising technology for satellite communications due to its various advantages over radio-frequency (RF) systems, such as higher throughput, lower energy consumption and smaller mass. Nevertheless, optical satellite communication systems are heavily affected by atmospheric impairments, mainly by clouds. In order to cope with cloud coverage, site diversity technique is employed at the expense of installing extra optical ground stations (OGSs). As a consequence, the interest in ground network optimization is rapidly increasing with the aim to guarantee a given service availability. In this paper, a low-complexity optimization algorithm for ground network design in optical geostationary (GEO) satellite systems is presented, taking into account the spatial correlation between sites. Specifically, the objective is to choose a group of candidate OGSs that minimizes the overall cost of the ground network and meets certain availability requirements for every time period (thus incorporating the temporal variability of cloud coverage). Moreover, an extension of the methodology to optical medium-Earth-orbit (MEO) satellite systems is provided. Lastly, the performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated via numerical experiments.
In this paper, a methodology for the generation of cloud free line of site time series for low earth orbit optical satellite communication systems is presented. The proposed methodology is based on the synthesis of 3D cloud fields employing Integrated Liquid Water Content (ILWC) statistics. The methodology captures the temporal and spatial variability of cloud coverage and takes into account the varying elevation angle of the LEO optical link with each optical ground station (OGS) and the altitude of each OGS for the estimation of the CFLOS probability. The ILWC statistical parameters required for the CFLOS time series are taken from ERA Interim data base, European Centre for Medium- Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Finally CFLOS numerical results are reported and some significant conclusions are drawn.
In this paper, a methodology for the estimation of aperture averaging factor for a central obscured aperture is briefly presented and tested against experimental results. The modeling is based on the methodology reported in the NASA’s report edited by Fried [10]. For the validation of the methodology, experimental data from the ARTEMIS bi-directional optical link is employed. Experimental data sessions from 2003 with the ARTEMIS GEO satellite as space segment and the 1.016m Cassegrain central obscured telescope of ESA in Tenerife at 2.4km altitude as ground segment are used.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.