Fiber‐ and Wireless‐Optic Data Transmission

This chapter presents the fiber‐ and wireless‐optic data transmission. Optoelectronic devices consisting of the same semiconductor materials as in the second region are used. The signal‐to‐noise ratio S/N is important for the quality of an optical transmission link. The free‐space optical communication has become attractive for data transmission between Earth orbiting satellites, optical ground stations (OGS), aircraft, high‐altitude plat forms (HAP) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The chapter gives an overview of the channel characteristics and fields of application with the focus on optical satellite communication. The coherent transmission, also referred to as optical heterodyne reception, allows contrary to the direct detection a basically new type of optical communication. The signal‐to‐noise ratio is a parameter which decisively determines the bit error rate similar to point‐to‐point connections. High bandwidth, covering large distances and maximum security are just some of the reasons that speak for data transmission via fiber optic cables.