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Laser satellite communications

07.12.2022

With the help of a new satellite, developed by engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a new record for data transmission between satellites and the Earth has been set. The TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) terabit infrared transmission system used lasers to transfer huge amounts of data at speeds up to 100 gigabits per second (Gbps).

This data rate is much faster than most sky-to-ground connections. For example, SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet offers premium customers speeds of up to 500 Mbps. And the data transfer rate between the Earth and the International Space Station reaches around 600 Mbps. This makes the TBIRD system 200 times faster.

The main difference of the new system is the method of data transmission. While most satellites communicate with ground stations using radio waves, the TBIRD system uses laser light. It can transfer 1000 times more data in one session. However, lasers also have their drawbacks. A laser beam is much narrower than a radio wave and therefore requires a more precise position matching between transmitter and receiver. In addition, the light may be distorted by the atmosphere, in which case data may be lost.

It is with the aim of solving these problems that the TBIRD system was developed. The satellite contains three main ready-made components: a high-speed optical modem, an optical signal amplifier, and a storage device.

All of this is housed in a container the size of a shoe box. To solve the problem of data loss, a team of engineers developed a new version of the so-called ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request) protocol. This protocol allows the ground station receiver to notify the transmitter of certain data packets (frames) that the transmitter has missed so that the satellite can easily retransmit them.

With regard to alignment with position matching, the system does not use special hangers to align the laser beams. A special error signal system is provided that aligns the entire satellite so that the beam is clearly aimed at the receiver. According to representatives of the development team, this allows the use of smaller optical components in the system.

“If the signal disappears, we can retransmit the data, but if the retransmission is inefficient, that is, if we spend all the time sending retransmissions instead of transmitting new data, we can lose a lot of bandwidth,” said Kurt Schiller, TBIRD systems engineer. "In our ARQ protocol, the receiver informs which frames it received correctly, so it knows which frames need to be retransmitted."

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