Reliable Optical Wireless Links used as feeder links between earth and satellite

The use of optical communication links is a growing and promising technology, with its applications spreading over many areas of telecommunication. ESA's involvement in the development of optical communication terminals for high data rate links between satellites already resulted in the successful demonstration of the SILEX programme using optical inter-satellite links, using the ARTEMIS satellite in the GEO orbit and experimental programmes like the OPTEL terminal. The Optical Ground Station (OGS) facility on the Canary Islands and communication links through the Earth's atmosphere have been demonstrated successfully. In this paper we show improvements on Optical Wireless Links for future Broadband networks. Most of the results have been carried out within international co-operations like COST and EU-projects and ESA-contracts.