Wavelength Division Multiplexing with 2-D PPM for Optical Space Communications

WDM has been used for transmission over fiber optics, but not for deep space communications. NASA currently uses only single wavelength optical transmission. Optical WDM communication is more suitable for high data rate transmission with a lower complexity optical receiver, and it reduces the load on signal processing while enabling parallel processing. If we apply this technology to WDMA, a simultaneous communication can be provided between a constellation of CubeSats and an Earth station. The proposed technical approach provides a new architectural capability compared to the present state-of-the-art optical communication systems utilized by NASA.\n

Design, develop and analyze end to end Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) optical communication system between a spacecraft and a ground station using PPM. In the proposed system, each laser can operate at lower power and data rate, reducing the burden and complexity on signal processing at the optical receiver. Multiple data types can be accommodated even if they are asynchronous or at different rates. Under this task an architecture was designed that can be used to improve the effectiveness of optical communications for three use cases: increasing the capacity for a single user, increasing the bits transmitted per photon, and enabling multiple spacecraft (e.g. cubesats) to communicate with Earth.

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