Posts by Justin Bertelsen

Overview Inter-Satellite Links (ISL) allow satellites to communicate with each other in a constellation. Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISL) are ISLs that utilize optical technologies to route data traffic between satellites and OGSs. OISLs have a greater advantage than traditional RF links since they are able to produce greater signal power with lighter and smaller components. OISLs…

Absorption Absorption is caused by molecules suspended in the terrestrial atmosphere interacting with an incident photon and absorbing some or all of its energy. Absorption is strongly correlated to both the type of molecule present and the concentration of the molecule. Water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and ozone molecules all absorb strongly in the infrared region.…

An Ultraviolet Non-Line-Of-Sight system (or, UV NLOS system) is a system designed to perform short-ranged free-space optical communication using atmospheric scattering to broadcast a signal to a receiver which is not or cannot be in the line-of-sight (LOS) of its transmitter. For example, consider a receiver and transmitter communicating with one another in a straight…

Attochron, LLC, is a United States company based in of Lexington, Virginia, that specializes in the development of ultrashort pulse laser (USPL) systems for FSO telecommunications, LIDAR and remote sensing, collectively called USPL FSO™. Attochron has developed USPL-based FSO technologies to overcome atmospheric attenuation and scintillation, two conditions that have historically kept continuous-wave (CW) FSO…

MOSTCOM (also MOCTKOM, MOSTKOM, and JSC Mostcom) is a Russian telecommunications company specializing in free-space optics research and development. The name “MOSTCOM” comes from a combination of MOST (Multiple Optical System for Telecom) and COM (communication). On November 6, 2019, the Russian State corporation Roscosmos granted MOSTCOM an indefinite license for space-related developments in FSO.…

NASA has been collecting capability statements from any small businesses which can develop mission-ready optical communication technologies at a NASA Technical Readiness Level (TRL)-5 and above. Selected businesses will be added to the Optical Tech Commercialization Catalog (OTCC). NASA will use the OTCC to award Indefinite Delivery, Idefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts for optical communication systems…

Visual Light Communication (VLC), operating between 400-700 nm, shows great promise in the future of wireless communication. VLC technology can simultaneously utilize the emerging solid-state lighting technologies while acting as a complement to existing RF systems. VLC also has many advantages over existing RF technologies including higher bandwidth, higher potential for spatial reuse, and lower…

HydRON is a proposed satellite communications program managed by the ESA with the purpose of enabling terabit/s intersatellite laser communication links. The program proposes to show that optical communications technologies can operate as a flexible and scalable multi-network that is both safe and secured. HydRON has been dubbed “the fiber in the sky” to showcase…