International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882

Volume 3 Issue 2, May 2014

Optimization of Performance of Inter-Satellite Optical Link

With Effect of Bit Rate and Aperture
Apurva Chaudhary1, Sandeep Singh2, Gagan Minocha3, Haneet Rana4
1

M. Tech student, AMITY University, NOIDA,U.P, India,

Assistant professor, ECE Department, Vidya College of Engineering, Meerut,U.P, India
3
Assistant professor, ECE Department, AMITY University, NOIDA,U.P, India,
4
Assistant professor, ECE Department, AMITY University, NOIDA,U.P, India,

ABSTRACT:
The day by day evolution has changed the optical communication systems from the lengthy fibres to wireless
channels. This can be concluded as the optical systems have resulted to be used in space communication as a medium
between two satellites. As we know that the numbers of satellites are increasing day-by-day for the exchange of data
between two states, country and all over the world. So in this work we are using optical wireless channels (OWC) for
intersatellite communication and optimize the data exchange depending upon the performance parameters like Quality
factor, Bit error rate and Received power. We are optimizing the results by varying some parameters like transmitter
and receiver antenna aperture, bit rate and transmitter power. The intersatellite links were modelled and simulated
with the help of optical system simulator named OPTISYSTEM 9.0 by OPTIWAVE.
Keywords: Intersatellite links, OWC, Optical-satellite links, BER, Q-Factor
I. INTRODUCTION
As we know that at the starting of 2009 there were
6124 satellites orbiting earth and the no is increasing
day by day. At the same time optical communication
has evolved from lengthy fibers to optical wireless
communication (OWC). We all know that lasers are
capable of sending data up to rate of 1GBPS and at
thousands of kilometres without any error. This has
force us to adapt optical communication technology in
our space satellite systems, hence for this reason
intersatellite optical links (IsOWC) has developed.
IsOWC is a type of network in which we can connect
satellites of same orbit as well as of different orbit. As
we know that light travel at a speed of 3x108 m/s the
data can travel faster in comparison to other channels.
One more advantage of using optical communication is
that it sends the data for thousands of kilometres using
small pay-load size..This may result in small size
satellites. Another reason of using optical
communication is its narrow beam width that may help
it to prevent from several problems like dispersion. So
these are the reasons for which we can prefer optical
wireless communication over RF networks but it may
be sure that they have a line of sight communication.
Our work is based on these aspects to study the
intersatellite links and performance of this link using
several performance parameters like distances between
satellites, bit error rate, quality factor, received power
and bit rate.
II. OVERVIEW OF SATELLITES
as we all know that satellites are the object which
revolves around another object in free space for eg
Moon works as satellite for Earth and Earth acts as
satellite to sun. In 1945, Arthur Clarke wrote on the

possibilities of having man-made satellites that could

be able to relay telephone channels and broadcast
programs. Thirteen years later, the first communication
satellite named SCORE (Signal Communication by
Orbital Relay) was launched and proved that Clarkes
theory was indeed possible. Following the success of
SCORE, many more satellites were launched by the
United States, Russia, United Kingdom and Canada.
Since then, satellites are being used for many
applications depending upon the purpose like remote
sensing of earth, scientific research activities, global
positioning etc.
Satellites revolve around Earth in a fixed path known
as orbit. There are basically three types of orbits used
for satellites LEO, MEO and GEO. LEO ( low earth
orbits) are closest to earth having altitudes from 100 to
5000 KM. In LEO satellites takes around two to four
hour to rotate around the earth. LEO is used for multi
satellite constellation in which multiple satellites are
used to perform a single task. The MEO (medium earth
orbit) ranges from 10000 to 20000 KM and it has time
period of four to twelve hours. MEO can be basically
used for remote sensing purpose. For communication
purpose like telephone services and broadcasting
Geosynchronous orbits (GEO) are used and have an
altitude of around 36000 KM. It takes a day to revolve
around the Earth and seems to be stationary at any
point of the earth.
III. SYSTEM DESIGN
Several designs were built to obtain the optimum
design for the IsOWC system. The first design consists
of basic OWC communication system and is shown in
Figure.1. The design was then improved by expanding

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 3 Issue 2, May 2014

the optical transmitter and receiver with specific

subsystems. This is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1. IsOWC first design with basic subsystems

In the design model shown, note that the model is for
simplex system. Which means the model is for one
way data transmission from one satellite to another.
The full-duplex system model consists of two simplex
systems. Hence it can be used for two way data
transmission from one satellite to another and back.
Figure 3 shows the final system model for full-duplex
communication between two satellites.

Figure 2. IsOWC simplex design model

Figure 3. Full-duplex communication between two

satellites
i. IsOWC Transmitter Design
The transmitter consists of four subsystems. The first
subsystem is the pseudo-random bit sequence
generator. This subsystem is to represent the
information or data that wants to be transmitted. The
data usually come from the satellites TT&C system.
In this project the bit rate is varied to observe the
system performance and the relationship between bit
rate and distance.
The second subsystem is the NRZ pulse generator.
This subsystem encodes the data from the pseudorandom bit sequence generator using the non-return
zero encoding technique. The third subsystem in the
satellite IsOWC transmitter is the CW laser. CW
stands for continuous wave where the output signal of
the laser is nonstop and un-modulated. Lasers are used
instead of LED for this system because of its ability to
transmit at further distance. The frequency of the light
is chosen to be 1550nm or 193.1THz with input power
of 10dBm.
The last subsystem in the transmitter is the MachZehnder Modulator. It is an optical modulator that
functions is to vary intensity of the light source from
the laser according to the output of the NRZ pulse
generator. The input optical signal from the laser will
split in to two and go through phase shifting process in
the waveguides. Phase-shifting happens due to the
electro-optic effect where the output electrical pulse
from the NRZ pulse generator will vary the voltage
hence varying the refractive indices of the waveguides.
The output of the Mach-Zehnder modulator will be
transmitted to the other satellite through the space of
OWC channel.

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 3 Issue 2, May 2014

ii. OWC Channel

The free space between two connecting satellites is
considered as OWC channel which is the propagating
medium for the transmitted light. In the OptiSystem
software, the OWC channel is between an optical
transmitter and optical receiver with 15cm optical
antenna at each end. The transmitter and receiver gains
are 0dB. The transmitter and receiver antennae are also
assumed to be ideal where the optical efficiency is
equal to 1 and there are no pointing errors. Additional
losses from scintillation and mispointing are also
assumed to be zero. Due to the altitude of the satellites
that is above the Earths atmospheric layers, there is no
attenuation due to atmospheric effects.
iii. IsOWC Receiver Design
The receiver of the data consists of an APD
photodiode, low pass filter and 3R regenerator. The
photodiode acts as a front-end receiver that receives
the optical signal and converts it into electrical signal.
The APD photodiode has an internal gain which allows
for the reduction of noisy external amplifiers in optical
detection systems. Therefore, in this system model, no
optical amplifier is needed. Apart from that, the APD
photodiode is useful in low, weak or reduced light
applications because of the avalanche phenomenon
utilized by the device provides high amplification.
Hence it is ideal to be used in this system where the
long distance transmission reduces the intensity of the
light. APD photodiode used in the OptiSystem model
has a multiplication factor of 3 and default dark current
used is 10nA. The frequency of the photodiode is set to
193.1THz.
IV. RESULTS:
I.
Relationship between received powers with
distance of intersatellite communication
From the graph 4 we have analyzed that received
power is decreased with increase in intersatellite
distance. With the increase in aperture diameter of
receiver the optical received power is increased. The
receivers sensitivity is associated with optical
received power. So we can conclude that if we increase
the optical antenna diameter the receiver sensitivity
also increased. Also it can be concluded that lower
sensitivity is used for long distance communication so
we have to use lower aperture antenna for low
sensitivity that will allow an error free transmission.

Figure 4 Received power vs. distance for receiver

aperture
4.3 Relationship between q-factor with distance of
intersatellite communication by varying bit rates
The Q-factor of the intersatellite system is observed
with distance by varying the data rates is plotted in
graph 5. The quality factor is calculated for a distance
of 0 km to 5000 km and we have set the transmitter
power at a fix value of 15dB. We have used five
different bit rates as shown in figure.
From the graph of Figure 5, it can be observed that as
we increase the distance the quality of system
degrades.ie. the error is increasing in the received
signal. Also as we increase the bit rate the maximum
achievable distance decreases so we have to use lower
bit rates for long distance communication. However
the long distance can be achieved by using higher
value of transmitter power.

Figure 5 Q-factor vs. distance for different Bit rates

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International Journal of Scientific Research Engineering & Technology (IJSRET), ISSN 2278 0882
Volume 3 Issue 2, May 2014

IV. CONCLUSION
Day by day satellites are used for the benefits of the
mankind. The futures of the satellites are to send the
data at any part of the world and can be used to
provide high data transmission systems. We have
analysed and optimized some parameters that can be
used to these satellites with the help of ISOWC.
From the model we have simulated and the results we
have analyzed we can conclude following:
i.
The error at the receiving end increases with
increase in intersatellite distance.
ii.
Antenna aperture is associated with received
power. The antenna sensitivity is also
increased with increase in its aperture. Lower
aperture i.e. low sensitivity can achieve long
distance error free transmission.
iii.
Bit rate can be varied according to maximum
achievable distance. Low bit rates can be used
for long distance error free transmission.
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