Free-Space Laser Communications:

The Japanese Experience

Morio Toyoshima

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology

(NICT)
Email: morio@nict.go.jp

ECOC, Vienna, Austria

Sept. 24, 2009
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 Outline
• Introduction
• Trends of data rates
• Past and current optical space communication programs
in Japan
– ETS-VI/LCE program
– OICETS/LUCE program
– Development of digital coherent receivers
– Development of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) terminals
• Japanese Data Relay Test Satellite (DRTS) at JAXA
• About the wavelength selection
• Concluding remarks

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ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009
Trends of data rate for Earth observation satellite

1.0E+10

TerraSAR-X

1.0E+09 Geo-Eye-1
Ikonos2
ClarkLandsat7 Spot5 ALOS
Landsat4 ERS2 EOS-PM1
bit/sec)

1.0E+08 ERS1 Radarsat1

Landsat5 IRS-1C Envisat1
JERS1 ADESO2
Data rate (bit

Spot2 ADEOS1 Sunsat

Landsat1 Spot1 Spot3 Spot4
GMS4 Terra
Landsat3 IRS-1A GMS5 IRS P4
1.0E+07 Landsat2 IRS-1B
MOS1b Resurs-01 N3
MOS1a Elektro1 MeteosatSG
TRMM MT-Sat
Earth observation satellite (LEO) Orbview2
1.0E+06
DFH49
Earth observation satellite (GEO)
GOES8
1.0E+05
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Launch year

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ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009
Trends of data rate for space laser comm.
1.0E+11 Digital
1.0E+10 coherent
TerraSAR-X
ate [bit/sec]

NeLS
1.0E+09
OICETS
1.0E+08
Data rate

1.0E+07 SILEX

1.0E+06
ETS-VI Space qualified
1.0E+05
Ground test
1.0E+04
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Launch year

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ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009
R&D on optical space communications in NICT
GMS-2 GMS-3 GMS-4 ETS-VI ARTEMIS
LCE OPALE(ESA)

GEO

GEO-LEO
GEO-
Ar laser+ CO2 GEO-GND
GEO- Two--way Laser Comm.
Two
Laser Comm.
Optical Tracking NeLS (NICT)
OICETS Development
Laser Trasmission
LUCE
Experiment AJISAI,
LEO-GND
LEO- (JAXA)
ADEOS, ADEOSII,
LRE, ALOS, ETS-
ETS-VIII Two--way
Two
LEO Laser Comm.

Laser Ranging

LEO-GND
LEO-
1.064 μm
Laser Tracking
GND
NICT OGS (1.5m Telescope System)

1980 1990 2000 2010

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ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009
Laser communications experiment
using ETS-VI satellite (Dec. 1994 - July 1996)
• 1 Mbps IMDD bi-directional
optical link experiment at a
distance of ~40,000 km.
• 22 kg, 60 W onboard
equipment verification

ETS-VI

Laser Communication Equipment (LCE)

NICT/CRL Optical Ground Station
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ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009
 Uplink and downlink laser beams
for the ETS-VI satellite

Uplink laser beam from Downlink laser beam from

the NICT/CRL ground station the ETS-VI satellite

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ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009
 OICETS satellite system

1.8 m

Optical Antenna

Solar Array Paddle 9.4 m

S-band Antennas

Satellite size 0.78x1.1x1.5 m

Mass 570 kg
Mission life 1 year
Altitude 610 km (circular)
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ECOC,
Courtesy Vienna, Austria,
of JAXA Sept. 24, 2009 Inclination 98 deg.
Laser communication terminal
Azimuth (AZ) axis
Size 1.24×0.98×0.57 m

Mass Approx. 140 kg

EL Cable
Cable Rap
Wrap Power Approx. 220 W
consumption (during communication)
Optical Antenna
ＨＣＥ Courtesy of JAXA

EL Motor
EL Encoder

Elevation (EL) axis

Inter Optics Part

AZ Cable
Cable Wrap
Rap

EL Gimbal Yoke
LUCE (Laser Utilizing Communications Equipment)
AZ Motor/Encoder

ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009

Configuration of the experiment
ESA/ARTEMIS
OICETS/Kirari satellite

Laser communication RF link

(Satellite control)

DLR (Germany)

NASA JPL (U.S.) ESA (Spain) JAXA Kirari operation center

NICT (Japan)
(Tsukuba Space Center)
International cooperation
between 4 OGSs
ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009
 OICETS scenario
- Event -
• Separation (changed)
• Spin mode (changed)
• Solar paddle deployment
• Sun acquisition mode
• Earth acquisition mode
• Launch lock off
• Trajectory control
• 3-axis stabilized attitude
control
• Optical communication
with ARTEMIS
• Optical communication
with NICT ground station

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ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009
Acquisition and tracking

Wide CCD at
FOV CCD Tx bench

Guide CCD at
Telescope Rx bench

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ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009
Statistics of link establishment
• Probability of success during Spacecraft/
operation error Link established
all the experiments 7% 32%
– NICT: 49.1 %
Cloud
– NASA JPL: 57.1 % 25%

– DLR: 60.0 %
– ESA: 88.9 %
• Total probability of success
between Earth and space: Rain Link established
21% (interrupted by
– 1-[(1-0.491)x(1-0.571) clouds)
x(1-0.60)x(1-0.889)] = 0.9903 Link established 12%
through thick
• Four OSGs combination will clouds
5%
help to download massive data
Statistics of link establishment at NICT
from space with the probability
of 99%.

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ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009
 Digital coherent receiver aiming for
free-space laser communications
• Interoperability between IMDD and coherent technologies (1.064 &
1.5 μm) which allow us to communicate with ESA’s coherent terminals
• Signal fading caused by atmospheric turbulence can be compensated
by the real-time digital signal processing (DSP).
• No optical PLL because commercially available local lasers can be
used as free-running conditions.
• Optical devices at 1.5 μm are available.

Mod. formats:
- IMDD
- Coherent (1.0 & 1.5 μm)

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Development of real-time digital coherent receiver
~ Implementation of FPGAs ~
• 3 Gbps BPSK real-time coherent receiver in 2007
– 2xADC: NS ADC083000
– FPGA: Xilinx Virtex-4/FX100
• 6 Gbps BPSK real-time coherent receiver in 2008
– 4xADC: NS ADC083000
– 2xFPGA: Xilinx Virtex-4 & Virtex-5
• Dual wavelengths free-space optical 90 degree hybrid
– Two wavelengths (1.064 &1.5 μm) can be received without no
reconfiguration.
– High I/Q extinction ratio: >50 dB

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ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009
 Development of QKD terminals
~1-km free-space QKD experiments~
Hotel Mets Kokubunji
Bob
NICT
NICT
Alice

~1km
Alice

Bob JR Kokubunji
station

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ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009
 Japanese Data Relay Satellite at JAXA

Data Relay Satellite

Data Relay Test Satellite “Kodama”

Low earth orbit

“ALOS” 1~2 DRTSs will be in operation.
ALOS2
Wavelength:1.064 um
ALOS3
R&D of next generation optical intersatellite technology Data rate: 2.5 Gbps
Mod: Homodyne BPSK
Optical terminal can be compact and several ones can be onboard GEO.
PLL: Optical PLL

Research Development

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2009/09/20090909_sac_oicets.pdf ( in Japanese)
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Trends of data rate and the receiver sensitivity
1.0E+15
WDM
1550 nm
Technique

1.0E+12
ata rate [bit/s]

DPSK(2003) 1064 or 1550 nm

RZ-DPSK(2004) RZ-AMI(2003)
DPSK(2008) Digital coherent
TerraSAR-X NeLS
1.0E+09
Da

OICETS SILEX 800 nm

Classical limit ETS-VI
(Shannon limit)
1.0E+06
Space qualified
Ground test
1.0E+03
1.0E+00 1.0E+01 1.0E+02 1.0E+03 1.0E+04

Sensitivity@BER=10-6 or 10-9 [photons/bit]

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 Concluding Remarks
• ETS-VI/LCE successfully demonstrated the ground-to-
satellite optical communication experiments.
• OICETS/LUCE succeeded to establish the inter-satellite
and ground-to-satellite links. The precise acquisition and
pointing technology necessary for a LEO to GEO link
was confirmed.
• International cooperation is important for site diversity.
• Current R&D was presented related to the digital
coherent receiver and the QKD experiments.
• For the wavelength selection, 1.064 μm will be used at
this moment. However, 1.5 μm technology will be the
next lead for the higher data demands even in space
laser communications.

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ECOC, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 24, 2009