Objectives

The objective of this activity is to design, simulate and test a high data rate Forward Error Correction on-board decoder and demonstrate this via a breadboard running at a data rate of at least 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps) with soft decision decoding. The decoder shall target next generation optical inter-satellite links and shall be made lightweight in terms of onboard resources usage.

Besides the breadboard-level hardware demonstration, target FEC performances at higher rates (up to 100Gbps) will be investigated and assessed. 

The target TRL for this activity is 4.

Challenges

The challenges to be overcome during the activity will mostly involve the design of a lightweight FEC code to work at very high datarates. Another challenge will be the implementation of the decoder on hardware platforms with comparable capabilities of the ones currently available and/or planned for satellite communication payloads, posing a limitation on the processing performances.

System Architecture

The expected system shall consist of a hardware-based encoder, an OISL channel model, and the breadboard decoder. Of course, the encoder and decoder implementation will depend on the FEC selection and ad-hoc design. 

During design and development phase, the support of software models for the communication channel and the FEC code will also allow the consortium to assess theoretical performances and limitations of the selected solution for very high data rate applications.

Plan

The project will start with a State-of-Art assessment for potential FEC candidates and available payload processing units for communication payloads. After this phase, the design of the FEC code, and the related design of the decoder breadboard and encoder hardware will follow. In the implementation phase, the breadboard will be developed and the support hardware will be setup. The test and verification phase will assess whether the expected performance of the system have been achieved, and possible deviations will be identified and investigated. The final phase will consist of a technology evaluation and of a suggestion for development roadmap to bring the concept to higher TRLs.

Current Status

The project has kicked off in September 2024.At the time of writing, the Consortium is looking into the state of the art and exploring possible solutions for FEC design and its implementations in platforms whose resources are compatible with the satellite-based payloads.

Companies

Deutsches Zentrum Für Luft- Und Raumfahrt (DLR)

https://www.dlr.de/

Germany

Tesat Spacecom GmbH & Co. KG

https://www.tesat.de/

Germany

Creonic GmbH

https://www.creonic.com/

Germany

Objectives

Design and development of software for network management in optical satellite constellation networks with machine learning techniques, benchmarked against solutions with classical network optimization techniques.

Challenges

Improve already existing state-of-the art techniques for network optimization by using machine learning, bringing an improvement on link capacity utilisation of at least 50%, and demonstrated under a testbed capable of simulating a representative scenario running these new algorithms in the control plane.

System Architecture

To be confirmed during the preliminary design and critical design review phases of the project, the proposed demonstrator architecture would be based on an existing network simulation framework, i.e. NS3 or OMNEST++, extended by several modules already foreseen, such as configuration utilities for the scenario configuration, orbital propagation and visibility calculation, channel emulation and ISL management.

Plan

• Definition of use cases and scenarios

• System Requirements Review

• Preliminary Design Review

• Critical Design Review

• Implementation and Verification

• Acceptance

• Final Review

Current Status

The project was kicked-off on the 26th of July 2024, and it has started producing the first outputs for the definition of the different use cases and scenarios to be analysed in the project.

Companies

GMV GmbH

https://www.gmv.com/

Germany

Saarland University

https://www.uni-saarland.de

Germany

Objectives

The objective of the Project is to identify, among commercially available MUX/DEMUXs devices, the technologies best suited for space applications and to test their optical performances resilience in typical space environment. 

Conceptually, the Project can be divided in 4 steps:

• A first one dealing with the survey of the state-of-the-art technologies currently available for terrestrial applications and their critical trade-off analysis for space applications.

• After the purchase of the selected MUX/DEMUXs, they undergo a first optical test campaign, in order to better characterize their performances in normal operative conditions. The results of these tests are then used as nominal reference values to be compared with the performances obtained after the environmental test campaign.

• Subsequently, the devices are tested through a series of mechanical and environmental tests. Depending on the specific test, the optical behaviour of the devices is also monitored during or after this test campaign. The final tests results will be compared with the performances obtained during the i optical test campaign.

• Finally, the analysis of the obtained results allows to provide suggestions to the manufacturers to improve their performances and reliability and to determine which devices technologies are best suited to operate in real space environment.

Challenges

The main challenge of the Project is represented by the execution of an efficient test campaign that needs to provide insights about the MUX/DEMUXs reliability in typical space environment with the best possible quality. Ideally, for each detected performance degradation, the specific environmental/mechanical cause should be individuated, and possible solutions should be indicated and discussed with the manufacturers in order to pave the way for the implementation of MUX/DEMUX internal scheme modifications.

System Architecture

2 testing platforms are involved in the testing. The first one, located at the PoliCom Optical Communications Labs, is used for the preliminary optical test campaign and is equipped with:

• Pattern generators and error detectors for Bit Error Rate measurements up to 25 Gb/s

• Optical and electrical spectrum analysers

• Digital sampling oscilloscopes with up to 40-GHz electrical bandwidth

• Realtime oscilloscope with 33-GHz bandwidth operating up to 50-GS/s

• Clock recovery from 1 Gb/s to 25 Gb/s

• 50-GS/s arbitrary waveform generator

• Two DAC up to 100 GS/s with 35 GHz bandwidth and 6-bit resolution

• E/O receivers up to 50-GHz bandwidth

• Coherent receiver for 28 Gbaud transmission

• Optical waveshapers, WDM multiplexers and filters. 

The second one, which includes the environmental and mechanical test facilities, the UMBRAGROUP/SERMS premises allow the execution of:

• Environmental Test (Humidity, Salt Spray, Icing, Thermal Cycles up to 15°C/min)

• Limit/Ultimate load Test

• Dynamic load tests.

• Fatigue Test

• Endurance Test

• Noise Test

• Vibration Test

• Operational shock and crash safety

• Many others

Plan

The Project is divided in 6 technical work packages plus one for management and coordination activities (WP0). These are spread along all the duration of the Project.

• During this period, 4 Milestones are foreseen:

• MS1 coincides with the PDR.

• MS2 is set at the end of WP2 activities.

• MS3 covers the activities of WP3 and WP4.

• Finally, upon the Agency’s acceptance of all deliverable items due under the Contract and the Contractor’s fulfilment of all other contractual obligations, the final Milestone MS4 is expected to be fulfilled by May 2025.

Current Status

The Project had its Kick off in December 2023. The Team is currently working on WP1: State-of-the-Art and Technical Specification Definition and WP2: MUX/DEMUX and Technical Baseline Selection activities.

WP3: Design of the MUX/DEMUX Test-Bed and Preliminary Optical Tests activities are due to start in May 2024.
 

Companies

RINA Consulting

https://www.rina.org

Italy

Roma Tre

https://www.uniroma3.it

Italy

Politecnico di Milano

http://www.polimi.it/

Italy

UMBRAGROUP S.p.A.

https://www.umbragroup.com

Italy

SERMS S.r.l.

https://www.sermssrl.com

Italy

Objectives

The project aims at demonstrating a motionless optical beam steering system suitable for Direct-To-Earth communication terminals, which combines both coarse and fine pointing functionalities in a single electro-optical component (a Spatial Light Modulator). The project has several objectives:

• To identify suitable SLMs that can realize the optical beam steering functionality.
• To explore different optical configurations and determine the performance limits of the motionless optical beam steering system in respect to a set of parameters such as the power efficiency within a given Field-of-View, the pointing stability, resolution and accuracy, the repointing time, the power stability, the wavefront error and the beam divergence
• To assess experimentally how such a motionless optical beam steering system compares with traditional multi-stage pointing systems, especially in terms of the field of regard that state-of-the-art electro-optical devices can cover.
• To realize a test-bed demonstrating the technology capability, i.e a 10 Gb/s optical transmitter breadboard featuring the motionless steering system, able to establishing an optical link alternatively between two separated receiving breadboards.
• To determine if the motionless optical beam steering system can be effectively operated in space (both by testing relevant devices in vacuum and under radiation exposure and across different temperature ranges).

Challenges

The main challenge addressed in this activity is to design and develop realize the motionless optical beam steering system around the technical specifications and verify if the set of performances are uniform within the largest possible FOV, without requiring real-time adaptive corrections. This will be verified by equipping the test-bed with a metrology system.

System Architecture

The system architecture is summarized in the following picture:

The Motionless Optical Beam Steering System will be the core element of an optical transmitter (+2 W, 10 Gb/s @ 1550 nm). The transmitter will be able establish an optical communication link with the two receiving breadboards which are placed within the field-of-regard of the transmitter breadboard. The demonstrator will be able to assess:

• Temperature stabilize the SLM for a complete characterization of potential correlations.
• The useful field-of-regard, by measuring the transmitted power across a two-dimensional field-of-view.
• The wavefront quality, by using a real-time wavefront error measurement, which communicate in closed loop with the transmitter to adaptively apply the due corrections, if needed.
• The pointing stability, accuracy and resolution.
• The switching time between the two optical receivers.

The three breadboards will be operated by a single controller allowing also to gather measured data from all the sensor/measurement systems.

Plan

Milestone 1: Project Kick-Off (KO)

Milestone 2: Technical Specification Review (TSR)

Milestone 3: Technology Trade-off Review (TTR)

Milestone 4: Preliminary Design Review (PDR)

Milestone 5: Detailed Design Review (DDR)

Milestone 6: Implementation and Verification Plan Review (IVR)

Milestone 7: Test Readiness Review (TRR)

Milestone 8: Test Campaign Review (TCR)

Milestone 9: Final Review (FR)

Milestone 10: Final Presentation (FP)

Current Status

Completed.

Companies

Aerospazio Tecnologie srl

http://www.aerospazio.com/

Italy

Objectives

This project’s objective is to manufacture a high-sensitivity APD-TIA module for low-noise applications at 1550 nm. The primary target is to achieve a data rate of 2.5 Gb/s with a bit error rate of 10-6, using a low – 43 dBm of average optical power. This work delivers a high-performance APD, as verified through key APD parameters such as the dark current, responsivity, excess noise, and noise equivalent power.

Radiation hardness is also a key consideration given the space applications. The aim is to provide a APD-TIA module that can withstand a total ionising dose (TID) of 50 krad(Si), which is typical during space missions, without optoelectronic degradation. Resistance to non-ionising radiation (TNID) and single event effects (SEE) is also intended with a targeted in-orbit deployment lifetime of at least 7 years.

Challenges

Given the state of the art -43 dBm target, the main challenge of this project is to minimise the noise from APD and TIA. However, many design parameters that improve the noise also come at the expense of the bandwidth, hence a detailed trade-off analysis is needed to deliver a viable solution. A high responsivity from the module is also needed, requiring minimal coupling and reflection losses. Likewise, a radiation hard and low-noise TIA is needed to be integrated with the APD without significant circuit parasitics. 

Plan

The project work is composed of 6 milestones each individually reported to ESA for approval. Milestone 1 (MS1) is composed of the literature review and initial technical baseline that is updated in MS2 where the design of the receiver is detailed. Later the implementation and verification plan is established in MS3, leading to the measurement stage that is assessed in MS4 and MS5. Finally, MS6 concludes the project with a detailed evaluation and presentation of the results.

Current Status

Currently, the ANELOQC project has submitted the reports for WP1 and WP2 and has had a telecom for MS1 with a second confirmation telecom planned. A more detailed design of the APD is underway for MS2 through simulations of specific APD structures. More procurement of parts for the BER setup has also taken place such as the VOA and fibres for the setup. Similarly, MACOM has been contacted for further details of the CGY2102UH/C2 TIA and its availability for initial trial bonding.

Companies

University of Sheffield

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/

United Kingdom

Phlux

https://phluxtechnology.com/

United Kingdom

Airbus D&S SAS (France)

https://www.airbus.com/en

France

Objectives

The objectives of the project are to develop a compact, low-cost, DTE laser communications system capable of providing up to 10 Gbps to meet the increasing demand for secure, high-data rate communications systems. The project includes design and development of the necessary subsystems and assemblies, design documentation, manufacturing and verification.

The project objectives in the V1 phase are:

• To review product requirements in line with lessons learned 

• To adapt the CUBECAT for serial production

• Improve the mechanical design to withstand the launch environment within a CubeCAT compatible formfactor

• Update electronics in line with updated requirements and with a DfX approach

• Update firmware in line with updated requirements

• Bring the product to market targeting commercial availability ahead of competitor products

The V2 phase project objectives are:

• Define requirements for an updated commercial product with improved performance

• Develop the preliminary design

• Develop the detailed design

• Produce a prototype of the V2 product

• Complete testing on the V2 product

Challenges

The key challenges addressed within this project are:

• The development of a commercialised product, using lessons learned from heritage products and in-orbit testing to mature the design and ensure the product is designed to withstand anticipated launch vibration loads 

• To deliver a commercially available product to market ahead of competitor products

• In line with the product roadmap, to design a terminal capable of increased data rates (up to 10 Gbps), delivering market leading SWaP in the laser communication domain

System Architecture

The system to be developed in this project is a small form factor direct-to-earth laser communication terminal. The system can be broken into the following sub-assemblies: Control Electronics and Data Storage, Fine Pointing System, Optomechanical Assembly, Laser, Detector and Firmware. 

Each of these subsystems plays a critical part in delivering the targeted 10Gbps downlink data rate. The fine pointing system is responsible for steering the laser beam and maintaining contact with the OGS while the control electronics are responsible for running the control algorithms required to achieve this. The optomechanical assembly is responsible for focusing the beacon beam on the uplink detector. It also needs to provide stable results over the temperature range. 

In order to ensure the 10Gbps data rate can be achieved the data is stored onboard the terminal to circumvent any interface bottlenecks in the data path. The laser provides the photons needed to transmit the data and the firmware bonds all of the subsystem in to one system. 

Plan

The project consists of two phases; the first phase delivers a commercialised CUBECAT V1 in 2025, with downlink speeds of up to 1Gbps. The second phase builds on the V1 product to deliver a further improved V2 terminal with downlink speeds of up to 10 Gbps in 2026.

Current Status

The project Kick Off was held on 7th June 2024. Some initial work has been started to review the product requirements and begin work to address lessons learned from in-orbit testing and to mature the design to facilitate series manufacture.

Related Links

• AAC Clyde Space and partners create hub for laser communications in the Netherlands

Companies

Hyperion

https://www.aac-clyde.space/who-we-are/our-brands/hyperion

The Netherlands

FSO Instruments

https://www.fso-instruments.nl

The Netherlands

TNO

https://www.tno.nl/en

The Netherlands

Objectives

Optical Communication Systems (OCS) have successfully been used for high communication data rates, either between satellites or between satellites and optical ground stations. However, such activities are not well optimised, owing to the complexity of the system. To this end, this activity explored where Machine Learning (ML) can be applied to provide or enable such optimisation, through upgrading, improving, or simplifying OCS.

In ML4OC the focus was drawn onto improving the onboard laser communication terminals and the traffic routing in an optical network. These topics were studied in the view of ESA’s HydRON (High Throughput Optical Network) project to ensure network connectivity in orbit. To align with this, the project delivered demonstrations of ML models which showed their impact on the link acquisition control loop and network traffic routing.

The main activities and objectives of ML4OC project were:

• Perform use case and requirement capture for ML-enabled OCS highlighting ML optimisation opportunities.

• Develop and describe ML models along with test systems to be integrated into.

• Demonstrate the benefits for the system by applying the ML solution instead of conventional methods.

Challenges

The key technical challenge for this activity lay in the limited availability and suitability of datasets required for training ML algorithms targeting OCS use cases. Development of custom datasets and the systems to test them on was an intensive task and required many inputs from all parties involved. This posed challenges to the ability of the ML algorithms to show performance improvement over the baseline and to meet performance requirements. 

Furthermore, there was difficulty in defining fully representative requirements to support the ML development due to limited detail on information as the HydRON project is in initial phases.

System Architecture

The system began with rationale, detailed descriptions and requirements of the optimisation opportunities and methods chosen for each use case. Then the ML models were developed and described for the use cases given (spatial acquisition and network management). For each use case, this involved the creation of the algorithms and the training datasets, and training of the algorithms. Following that, the algorithms were tested, validated, and verified using selected test scenarios. This involved the ML models being integrated into relevant test systems. For spatial acquisition this was an optical component test bench, and for network management this was a detailed network emulator. The results and performance of the algorithms were then analysed and compared against the conventional methods. Finally, the ML models were reviewed with the view of analysis of further opportunities.

Plan

Following the kick-off in February 2023, a requirements definition phase began. The first milestone was then the Requirements Review, which set the requirements for the remainder of the activity along with justification for proposed optimisation problems. The Mid-Term Review followed, covering description of the test system, breakdown of the ML implementation and documentation of verification and validation. The Design Review covered analysis and results comparison of the solutions. Finally, the Final Review closed the activity, and covered the final report and demonstrations which clearly outlined the advantages of the ML solution.

Current Status

Currently, the project has officially kicked off, with the initial managerial deliverables such as the risk register, webpage contents and executive summary completed. The project has moved into the beginning stages of the first Work Package to clearly develop and specify requirements. This stage includes a workshop with ESA to ensure accurate capture of HydRON requirements.

Companies

Craft Prospect

https://craftprospect.com/

United Kingdom

CGI

https://www.cgi.com/en

United Kingdom