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Completed TRL 3 (started at 1, targeting 3)
Design, develop, and analyze an end to end multiple access optical communication system between a constellation of CubeSats and a ground station for simultaneous communication without coordination.
The designed system has advantages over other types of multiple access systems - Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Wavelength-Division Multiple Access (WDMA), Space-Division Multiple Access (SDMA). All transmit lasers and optical receivers on the CubeSats could have identical implementation except for the signature codes that separate them. Optical CDMA communications between a constellation of CubeSats and an Earth station does not need bandwidth allocations and the number of CubeSats can be increased with graceful degradation in performance.
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