Performance investigation of spectral-efficient high-speed inter-satellite optical wireless communication link incorporating polarization division multiplexing

Abstract

Space information transmission links are crucial for covering the entire globe for communication purposes. The traditional microwave frequency-based satellite communication links have high latency and low information transmission rates. In the last few years, inter-satellite optical wireless communication (IsOWC) technology has evolved significantly as a result of its numerous benefits like wide channel bandwidth, high-speed links, and low mass and power requirements. Different research groups have proposed IsOWC links based on conventional on–off modulation schemes for transmitting 10 Gbps data between satellites separated in space. But the future generation transmission links require higher spectral efficiency and data rates with longer transmission reach. In this research, a novel single-channel spectrum-efficient 160 Gbps polarization division multiplexing-based IsOWC link is investigated for long communication range transmission. In this design, coherent detection technique is employed to mitigate the effects of system errors and space turbulence (i.e. pointing errors). A digital signal processing module has been proposed for minimizing the information signal degradation due to space turbulences and to estimate the carrier phase of the signal received. The results show that 160 Gbps information is successfully transmitted over 20,000 km range with an acceptable bit error rate (BER). Also, the influence of different system parameters including pointing error angle, receiver aperture diameter, and additional losses on the signal BER is numerically investigated.