Sustained 103.125 Gbps simultaneously bidirectional FSO communication in a 1395-m airship-to-ground link over 216 min

Area of Science:

• Optical Communications
• Aerospace Engineering
• Wireless Technology

Background:

• Free-space optical (FSO) communication is a viable technology for satellite and low-altitude floating platform (LAFP) links.
• Airships, unlike satellites, experience random attitude perturbations affecting FSO link stability.
• Atmospheric turbulence further challenges the reliability of FSO communication systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a stable, high-speed, bidirectional FSO communication link between an airship and a ground station.
• To overcome challenges posed by airship motion and atmospheric turbulence for FSO links.
• To establish a new benchmark for FSO communication performance in airship-to-ground scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Experimental demonstration of a simultaneous bidirectional 103.125-Gbps FSO link.
• Utilized dual-polarization quadrature phase shift keying (DP-QPSK) modulation.
• Conducted the experiment between an airship at 420m altitude and a ground station over a 1395m slant range.

Main Results:

• Successfully maintained an uninterrupted FSO link for 216 minutes.
• Achieved a tracking accuracy of 10 µrad despite airship motion.
• Sustained a bit-error rate (BER) between 1E-8 and 1E-11.

Conclusions:

• This work represents the first demonstration of a simultaneous bidirectional, 100 Gbps-class, hour-long uninterrupted FSO communication for an airship-to-ground link.
• The results highlight the potential of FSO technology for robust communication with airships.
• This milestone advances FSO technology applications in mobile and aerial communication platforms.