Transmitter Diversity With Phase-Division Applied to Optical GEO Feeder Links

The high data rates enabled by free-space optical communication links and additional factors, such as the unregulated spectrum, make them an attractive solution in future geostationary feeder link applications with capacities beyond one Terabit per second. However, optical links through the atmosphere are heavily affected by atmospheric turbulence, leading to significant scintillation. Transmitter diversity is an effective way to improve the signal quality of optical links. Transmitter diversity with Phase-Division in Bit-Time is a novel scheme for mitgating interference and thus enabling the use of equal wavelengths for multiple transmitters. This paper will evalute the Phase-Division in Bit-Time transmitter diversity scheme and present measurement results from a lab testbed.