Free Space Optical Connections for Airborne On-the-Move Nodes at High Data Rates Over Extended Distances

UAVs offer a low cost, highly capable aerial platform that can be used without risk to aircrews. The value of the RQ-4 Global Hawk and the MQ-1C Warrior in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the war in Afghanistan, has been well publicized. New, high resolution sensor payloads and an overall increase in network connectivity demand is generating more required bandwidth than existing RF/Microwave links can deliver to UAV missions. Free Space Optical communications (FSO) offer unprecedented bandwidth, but must overcome unique challenges associated with atmospheric channel fading and require precise beam steering capability to illuminate on-the-move (OTM) far-end apertures with their very narrow beams. To address this need, SA Photonics has developed the Raptor FSO Node for airborne and ground based mobile platforms. Raptor is a robust, compact, low power, and low cost mobile atmospheric FSO system that is scalable to a variety of applications. Raptor"s unique approach is to operate within the atmospheric fading environment, instead of trying to correct the channel with complex and expensive solutions such as adaptive optics solutions. To achieve this goal, SA Photonics utilized the latest technologies and techniques from various fields, including optical and wireless communications, forward error correction and digital signal processing. The resulting Raptor FSO Node promises to deliver high reliability, high data rate optical communications for OTM applications.