KEYWORDS: Microwave radiation, Surface plasmons, Signal detection, Clouds, Environmental sensing, Signal processing, Prototyping, Interfaces, Global Positioning System, Received signal strength
The concept of the transportation of a microwave environment over networks using a digitized Radio-on-Fibre (DRoF)
technique as well as the concept of in-network microwave processing, which could make the concept of "wired and
wireless network virtualization" into a reality, is discussed. The new applications to a radio-on-demand service (RoD),
software-defined radio-aware network (SDRAN), and microwave environments cloud are introduced. 10-Gbps Ethernet
based microwave-to-network interface converter (MiNIC) are developed and the transportation of multiple digital TV
broadcasting signals is demonstrated. It is shown that the MiNIC should use more than 8-bits resolution in digitization of
a microwave environment when 7 channels of TV signals are included in it. The concept of remote microwave
environments observation over networks is demonstrated, where the frequency channel and received signal strength
indication (RSSI) of the detected digital TV broadcasting signals are remotely monitored.
Experiments involving laser communications between an optical ground station and a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite
were successfully conducted from 2006 to 2009. The optical ground station is located in Koganei, Tokyo, and was
developed by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan. Four laser beams
were transmitted from the optical ground station to the LEO satellite in order to reduce the intensity of the fluctuation of
the optical signal caused by atmospheric turbulence. The frequency characteristics of the downlink are evaluated on the
basis of theory and the measurements, where the sampling rate was 20 kHz. The speckle patterns were averaged and the
frequency response of the received optical signal was filtered by the telescope aperture. The basis of the temporal
aperture filtering function is derived and compared with the measured results.
KEYWORDS: Satellites, Laser communications, Satellite communications, Aerospace engineering, Communication and information technologies, Communication engineering, Data communications, Atmospheric optics, Sensors, Meteorological satellites
The restarted OICETS-ground laser communications experiments are introduced. The events are sequentially
summarized from the launch of OICETS to the end-of-life, where the reopened experiments started from October 2008.
In the period, the satellite-ground laser communications campaign with the four optical ground stations of DLR, ESA,
JPL and NICT are conducted from April 2009 to September 2009. The open pointing characteristics of OICETS
measured in those trials show that the performance remains almost the same as before in 2006. The average rate of the
link establishments through the whole period is about 0.6 due to the weather conditions. The viewable periods of
OICETS from the four ground stations are analyzed as an example. The result indicates that the satellite could be
accessible once an hour from at least one of the four ground stations, which implies a possibility of a LEO satellite-ground
quasi-continuous connection.
A free-space quantum key distribution system is being developed by the National Institute of Information and
Communications Technology (NICT) in Koganei, Japan. Quantum cryptography is a new technique for transmitting
information where the security is guaranteed by the laws of physics. In such systems, a single photon is used for the
quantum information. However, since the transmission distance in optical fibers is limited by the absorption of photons
by the fiber, the maximum demonstrated range has been limited to about 100 km. Free-space quantum cryptography
between an optical ground station and a satellite is a possible solution to extend the distance for a quantum network
beyond the limits of optical fibers. At NICT, a laser communication demonstration between the NICT optical ground
station and a low earth orbit satellite was successfully conducted in 2006. The use of free-space quantum key
distribution for such space communication links is considered an important future application. This paper presents
conceptual designs for the onboard transceivers for satellite quantum cryptography
The R&D activities and current status in NICT on space laser communications are reported, where it is shown the goal
and scenario originating from the satellite-ground laser communication demonstrations with ETS-VI since 1994 for two
decades. The experiences obtained in the demonstrations have been inherited to the experiments with OICETS in 2006.
The experiments using the satellite are on going in 2008. Among these demonstrations, a laser terminal with
combination of key technologies was experimentally produced. For the next space laser communication system, we
have started the next version development technologies, on which trial manufactures are currently in progress. They have
been (and will be) implemented and tested at the ground station.
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