Optical Inter-Satellite Link over Low Earth Orbit: Enhanced Performance

Abstract Space communication systems are traditionally operated with microwave in satellite-to-satellite links. Now, more efficient and reliable operation is required, which lead to use optical links for Inter Satellite Links (ISLs). This paper investigates the system performance of an optical ISL proposed between satellites over Low Earth Orbit (LEO). In this study, the proposed link is simulated to obtain a maximum bit rate and minimum bit error rate (BER) over different links distances. The system performance is improved by investigating its dependency on the photo detector type, operating wavelength, transmitted optical power, RZ and NRZ schemes. Our work results that best Q- factor are approximately 40 leading to a minimum BER for the LEO orbit, at 600 km when utilizing an APD. While at our investigation of the system performance at visible light bands, it is found that Q-factor will be approximately 60 achieving minimum BER with neglecting the eye-safety precautions in addition to the ability to transmit 2 Gbps at 10 −9 BER within many bands.