MULTI-USER, MULTI-ACCESS, WIRELESS I-R COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

IT IS PROPOSED TO CONDUCT THE NECESSARY RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTATION TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF A UNIFIED WIRELESS INFRARED COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM FOR USE IN SPACE SYSTEMS. THE SYSTEM WILL BUILD ON EVOLVING WILTON INDUSTRIES INFRARED TECHNOLOGY CURRENTLY USED BY BOTH NASA AND INDUSTRY. THE PROPOSED SYSTEM WILL SUPPORT MULTIPLE-USER, MULTIPLE-ACCESS VOICE/DATA/CONTROL COMMUNICATIONS, AND IS EXPECTED TO PROVIDE UP TO 22 FULL-DUPLEX VOICE OR 19.2 KBS DATA CHANNELS. HIGHER DATA RATES ARE EASILY ACCOMMODATED BY COMBINING ADJACENT CHANNEL SPECTRUM ALLOCATIONS. THE PORTABLE COMPONENTS OF THE SYSTEMWILL BE LIGHTWEIGHT AND BATTERY-EFFICIENT. DURING THE PHASE I EFFORT, A 4-USER, FULL-DUPLEX VOICE/DATA/CONTROL IR SYSTEM WILL BE CONSTRUCTED AND TESTED.COMPUTER INTERFACES WILL BE CREATED TO FACILITATE CONTROL FUNCTIONALITY TESTING. MEASUREMENTS WILL BE MADE OF COVERAGE AREA, BATTERY DRAIN, CHANNEL CROSSTALK, INTERMODULATION, BIT ERROR RATE AND OTHER PARAMETERS IN ORDER TO PREDICT THE CHARACTERISTICES OF THE PROPOSED EXPANDED-CHANNEL INTEGRATED SYSTEM. SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE EXPANDED SYSTEM WILL BE GENERATED IN PHASE I ALONG WITH THE TECHNICAL GROUNDWORK FOR THE MODIFICATION OF NEXT GENERATION WI IR DESIGNS TO MEET NASA PROGRAM NEEDS, LEADINGTO A DEMONSTRATION OF A FULLY IMPLEMENTED SYSTEM IN PHASE II.