TESAT and MPB Communications took an important milestone to a new performance level of optical LEO to GEO data relays: The companies successfully demonstrated a 100 Gigabit per second (Gbps) data transmission at 40 W optical output power over a distance of more than 45,000 km in a laboratory environment at MPB Communications’ optical labs in Montreal, Canada.
Until now, LEO to GEO optical links of the European Data Relay Service (EDRS) achieved data rates of 1.8 Gbps at 2.2 W, with multiple links per day on-orbit. The 100 Gigabit of data transferred in one second at this new performance level is equivalent to around 300 hours of music streaming.
TESAT and MPB Communications demonstrated the simulation with 40 W (46 dBm) single mode optical output power at 1536.61 and 1553.33 nm. This is an important step in regards to the development of TESAT´s SCOT135 Optical Communication Terminal (OCT) for different multi-orbit connectivity scenarios enabled by MPB Communications’ 40 W high power optical amplifier. This new setup allows the SCOT135 OCT to perform ultra-high data rate optical links over a distance of more than 45,000 km and in LEO to GEO up to 80,000 km.
TESAT´s product approach enables a customization of the SCOT family to customer needs like link-distances that require different output power levels as demonstrated by the collaboration with MPB Communications.
This technological achievement has been supported by ESA contracts 4000140073/22/UK/ND and 4000136553/22/NL/FGL, implemented under ESA’s Optical & Quantum Communications – ScyLight Strategic Program Line, which forms part of the Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) program within the Directorate of Connectivity and Secure Communications.