IEEE PHOTONICS JOURNAL, VOL. 16, NO.

2, APRIL 2024 7301106

A Bidirectional Multi-Format/Rate-Adjustable
Integrated Laser Communication System for Satellite
Communication
Xiaoliang Li , Feng Fan , Hongtao Yu , Yizhou Wang , Xiaoxiao Dai , Member, IEEE,
Qi Yang , Senior Member, IEEE, and Rongke Liu

Abstract—Satellite optical communication networks have be- constellations, and the volume of data exchanged with satellites
come a promising core network structure, surpassing 5G and 6G, are all on the rise. However, due to limited Radio Frequency (RF)
and are expected to realize seamless connections between terres- spectrum resources, the spectrum will eventually be exhausted,
trial and non-terrestrial networks. Constructing an optical satellite
network that can achieve various link schemes and enable bidirec- making spectrum allocation a serious issue. This will ultimately
tional communication with multiple optical satellites at a low cost lead to a shift towards higher RF frequencies or even directly
(including low power consumption, low weight, and low space occu- to optical bands in space [1]. Space laser communication has
pation for each satellite) poses a technical challenge. In this paper, a wider potential bandwidth in the optical spectrum and offers
we propose and establish a multi-format/rate-tunable integrated several advantages, including a small aperture and light weight
laser communications hardware platform that can switch between
different links by controlling the modulation format and rate. The of the transmitting antenna, high data transmission rate, good
platform supports OOK, QPSK, and BPSK modulation with rates data confidentiality, and strong anti-jamming ability [2]. Various
ranging from 0.625 to 10 Gbps. Experimental demonstration of countries have implemented mega-constellation programs, uti-
bidirectional communication is conducted over a free-space optical lizing optical communication networks comprised of thousands
link. At a distance of 510 meters, sensitivity tests are conducted for of optical satellites. Huawei plans to build a 10000-satellite
signals with various modulation formats and rates. The receiving
sensitivity at the 3.8e-3 FEC threshold is −46 dBm for 10 Gbps Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation called Massive VLEO
PDM-QPSK signal, and is −58 dBm for 625 Mbps BPSK signal. for beyond 5G [3]. Telesat has developed a global network
Results show excellent signal sensitivity across different formats consisting of 198 advanced LEO satellites that are seamlessly
and rates. Additionally, the platform is capable of performing integrated with on-ground data networks. SpaceX intends to
ranging while communicating with a minimal ranging error of launch a multitude of low-orbit satellites with the goal of forming
2.9% of the width of a code word.
Index Terms—Multi-format/rate-adjustable, coherent receiver,
a constellation of stars. OneWeb is constructing a constellation
real-time, FPGA, laser communication/ranging. of 648 LEO satellites. Kaskilo will establish a low Earth orbit
constellation consisting of 288 satellites [4]. Satellite optical
I. INTRODUCTION communication networks have emerged as a promising core net-
N RECENT years, satellite communications have become work architecture, surpassing 5G and 6G, and offering seamless
I more sophisticated and widespread globally. With the ad-
vancement of space technology, the digitization of communica-
connectivity between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks.
Many satellite systems employing laser communications are
tion satellites, the deployment of small satellites-based satellite already in operation. A PPM signal with a downlink rate of
622 Mbps and an uplink rate of 20 Mbps was demonstrated on
Manuscript received 17 December 2023; revised 2 February 2024; accepted a communication link of over 400000 km as part of a lunar laser
13 February 2024. Date of publication 16 February 2024; date of current version communication experiment [5]. A 1.8 Gbps DPSK/IMDD inter-
7 March 2024. This work was supported in part by the National Key Research
and Development Plan Project under Grant 2022YFB2803205, in part by the satellite laser communication link has been used by the Japanese
National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 62275091 and Grant Data Relay System to transmit data between LEO satellites and
62205115, and in part by the Innovation Project of Optics Valley Laboratory data relay satellites [6]. A 1.8 Gbps satellite in BPSK modulation
under Grant OVL2021BG002. (Corresponding authors: Feng Fan; Rongke Liu.)
Xiaoliang Li is with the School of Electronics and Information Engineering, format was launched into a geosynchronous orbit of 36000 km
Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China, and also with the Beijing Research as the European Space Agency’s next-generation data relay
Institute of Telemetry, Beijing 100094, China (e-mail: [email protected]). system [7]. And a 10 Gbps satellite utilizing QPSK modulation
Feng Fan and Hongtao Yu are with the Beijing Research Institute of
Telemetry, Beijing 100094, China (e-mail: [email protected]; yuhong- format was successfully launched, enabling signal communi-
[email protected]). cation between the satellite and an optical ground station [8].
Yizhou Wang, Xiaoxiao Dai, and Qi Yang are with the Wuhan National The sensitivity of several real-time free-space optical (FSO) co-
Lab for Optoelectronics (WNLO) and National Engineering Laboratory for
Next Generation Internet Access System, School of Optical and Electronic herent communication transceivers using different modulation
Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, formats and rates are investigated, as shown in Table I [9], [10],
China (e-mail: [email protected]). [11], [12], [13]. In the future, achieving high-capacity satellite
Rongke Liu is with the School of Electronics and Information Engineering,
Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China (e-mail: [email protected]). laser communication will be possible due to the advantages of
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JPHOT.2024.3366805 coherent optical communication. A single-channel polarization
© 2024 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
7301106 IEEE PHOTONICS JOURNAL, VOL. 16, NO. 2, APRIL 2024

TABLE I
PERFORMANCE OF DIFFERENT PUBLISHED REAL-TIME FSO COHERENT
TRANSCEIVERS

division multiplexed – quadrature phase shift keying (PDM-

QPSK) transmission between satellites at 160 Gbps was sim-
ulated for 40000 km [14]. A 100 to 600 Gbps 16-QAM WDM
system with a transmission of more than 5000 km was simulated Fig. 1. Concept of the MR-ILC system.
and verified [15].
Given the variety of satellites already in orbit, newly launched
satellites must be able to communicate with the previous ones. be transmitted and received on one same hardware platform.
This requires the capability to communicate with different Besides, this system also includes the ranging measurement
types of satellites and terminals, as satellite network commu- function while communicating. The ranges are calculated using
nications involve multiple links. The communication distance, the frequency difference information from the clock recovery
transmission loss, rate, and modulation format may vary due algorithm in the communication, without additional hardware
to different links and communication terminals. The specific resource consuming.
selection of modulation format signal and rate to achieve optimal
performance depends on the characteristics of the link. If the
system is compatible with various modulation formats and can II. MR-ILC SYSTEM AND PRINCIPLE
switch between modulation formats and rates based on demand,
the satellite network can support multiple optical satellite net- A. Architecture of MR-ILC System
works and enable bi-directional communication with different The MR-ILC platform is capable of transmitting and receiving
communication terminals across various links. The concept of signals with various modulation formats and rates. The mod-
adaptive optical satellite network proposed by [16] is applicable ulation and demodulation algorithms for different signals are
to the above situation, but it only focuses on the design of optimized and integrated into a single set of algorithms. This
link parameters rather than the development of communication approach minimizes computational complexity and aligns well
modules. A relay system is proposed to address the issue of link with the limited resources available in satellite communication.
damage between the satellite and the ground [17], [18]. However, Concept of the proposed MR-ILC system is depicted in Fig. 1.
they all mainly focus on theoretical derivation and simulation of This system is capable of choosing modulation formats and
link performance of RF/FSO relay systems, which may be not signal rates for communications based on the characteristics
applicable to satellite networks. of the link (such as transmission distance and loss) and the
Future development of satellite communication terminals will signals from the respective communication terminals. For ex-
inevitably require high compatibility of various modulation ample, BPSK signals can be used when the distance is long
formats and data rates to support bi-directional communication and the loss is high. PDM-QPSK signals, on the other hand,
among satellite networks of different types and generations. This are suitable when a high information rate is required. Optical
can greatly enhance the flexibility and reduce the cost of space satellites equipped with the MR-ILC platform can establish
laser communications. Relevant organizations have also done bi-directional communication for different types of satellites.
some work on the design of satellite communication terminals It can also serve as a relay satellite to connect different types
[19], [20]. However, all of these devices can only support certain of satellites. Additionally, it can serve as a third communication
modulation formats with low data rate, which may not meet the terminal to establish a third-party communication link with two
required demand. other terminals, enabling communication to continue in case
In this paper, we propose and establish a multi-format/rate- of a link interruption or damage. It also allows for two-way
tunable integrated laser communications (MR-ILC) hardware communication with various types of satellites that are already
platform. The advantages of the proposed technique are mainly in operation. The function of ranging is also integrated into the
in two folds: firstly, the proposed MR-ILC utilizes an automatic system without extra hardware, which is accomplished along
bias control algorithm to adjust the bias voltage to facilitate sig- with communication. MR-ILC greatly improves the flexibility of
nal transmission in various modulation formats. Secondly, it uses satellite optical communication networks, and a single satellite
only coherent detection to receive signals for all the modulation that can fulfill the functions of different types of satellites also
formats, including intensity modulations. Different signals can greatly reduces the cost of the communication network.
LI et al.: BIDIRECTIONAL MULTI-FORMAT/RATE-ADJUSTABLE INTEGRATED LASER COMMUNICATION SYSTEM 7301106

Fig. 2. (a) Schematic diagram of an I/Q modulator. (b) Algorithm processing flow of the FPGA. (c) Modulation curve of a MZM (d) control methods for the
format-adjustable/rate-tunable communication.

B. Principle of the MR-ILC System TABLE II

TYPE OF MR-ILC SIGNAL
The optical signals of different modulation formats are gen-
erated on the same hardware platform by controlling the dual-
parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZM), structure of which
is shown in Fig. 2(a).
For a Dual Polarization IQ Modulator, the output can be
approximated as
 
1 1
2 cos (ϕxi /2) + j 2 cos (ϕxq /2)
Eout = Ein · 1 1
. (1)
2 cos (ϕyi /2) + j 2 cos (ϕyq /2)
Since the optical modulator comprises multiple MZM struc-
where Ein and Eout are the input electric field and output light of
tures, this paper employs an automatic bias control algorithm to
the modulator, respectively. ϕxi , ϕxq , ϕyi , and ϕyq are the phases
regulate several input bias voltages. The four arms are observed
of four MZMs. From (1), it is evident that when the variation in
and managed separately. The undesired arm is adjusted to the
phase shift ϕ conforms to a particular law, the sign of cos(ϕ/2)
NULL position and no radio frequency signal is applied to render
can oscillate between positive and negative. This phenomenon
it as invalid. This results in the least possible leakage of light sig-
causes the phase of the output optical field to toggle between
nals, thereby reducing the impact of the unoperated MZM on the
0 and π. As a result, phase modulation can be achieved. The
modulation signal. For example, to apply BPSK modulation, the
input voltage difference at which the phase shift ϕ changes by
XQ, YI, and YQ arms need to be set to NULL and no RF signals
π is defined as Vπ of MZM. The phase shift ϕ exhibits a linear
should be loaded to them to make them invalid, which actually
relationship with the input voltage of the electrical signal. The
means only the XI arm is working. The modulator in this paper
phase shift of the input electrical signal can be expressed as:
has multiple operating points, and different operating points can
Vbias + Vs be used to realize different functions. Fig. 2(d) shows the RF
ϕ= π. (2) signal and voltage values loaded on each arm corresponding
Vπ
to the different signals. Table II shows the modulation formats
Where Vbias and Vs are bias voltage and RF data. When supported on the platform and their corresponding rates.
the bias voltage reaches Vbias = −Vπ /2 ± kVπ (where k is Signals with different modulation formats and rates are trans-
an integer), the MZM enters the operating state of intensity mitted from the transmitter, received by the receiver module of
modulation. When the bias voltage is Vbias = −Vπ ± 2kVπ , the communication platform after passing through the channel,
the MZM enters the operating state of amplitude and phase and then sent to the FPGA for signal recovery. The FPGA
modulation. Fig. 2(c) shows the modulation curves of a MZM, automatically selects the corresponding algorithms based on
where the red curve represents the input electric fields and the the type of received signals, which are primarily divided into
black curve represents the output optical intensity. two categories: Coherent and IMDD. For coherent signals, the
7301106 IEEE PHOTONICS JOURNAL, VOL. 16, NO. 2, APRIL 2024

which meets the trend of future large-scale satellite launches and

satisfies communication needs.

III. EXPERIMENT SETUP

The experimental setup and physical display for the proposed
MR-ILC system are shown in Fig. 4. The red and blue links
in the diagram, respectively represent the transmission link of
optical and electrical signals. The MR-ILC system consists of
two identical FPGA-based terminals and a FSO transmission
link. The communication between terminal A and B is bidirec-
tional coherent optical communication. The FSO link is used for
representing the inter-satellite transmission medium Ranging is
achieved by varying the length of the optical delay line in the
experiment. The optical delay line ranges from 0 to 600 ps with a
resolution of 5 ps, thus the corresponding transmission distance
is from 0 m to 0.18 m.
At the transmitter side, a laser with a wavelength of 1550 nm
and a linewidth of ∼75 KHz, and an optical power setting of
13 dBm is used as the light source [21]. The resulting laser is
then injected into a DP-IQM with an output optical power of
−2 dBm. In addition, an in-house developed board integrates
the DP-IQM and an FPGA at the transmitter side to generate
Fig. 3. Schematic of the MR-ILC hardware platform. signals with different modulation formats and rates. The dig-
ital electrical signals are pseudo-random binary sequence-23
(PRBS-23) signals generated internally by the FPGA. Its internal
demodulation algorithm is only slightly different in the CMA. IP core calculates the bit error rate (BER) at the receiver side.
The overall algorithm flow remains the same. For direct de- These signals are then transmitted to the DP-IQM inputs through
tection of signals, the clock recovery algorithm does not need digital ports instead of digital-to-analog converters (DACs). The
to be changed, after the clock recovery, the FFE can be used modulated optical signal is then fed into the FSO transmitter
for judgment. So, the overall algorithmic complexity of the collimator, as shown in Fig. 4(b).
optimized integration is not high. The 510-meter-long FSO link is located between the two aca-
Communication modules for satellites must prioritize low demic buildings shown in Fig. 4(c) and consists of two terminals.
power, low weight, and small footprint due to limited re- The experiment was conducted during the winter season under
sources and space constraints. Therefore, the hardware platform cloudy weather conditions. The temperature ranged from 3 to 15
of the overall real-time adaptive communication module is a degrees Celsius. The wind speed and condition were measured
small-sized (18 ∗ 16 cm), low-power (∼48 W), and integrated on the Beaufort wind force scale between 1 to 3. The exper-
transceiver development board, as shown in Fig. 3. Considering iment was conducted in the evening. These terminals enable
the hardware resources required for real-time algorithms, the full-duplex communication, allowing for the implementation of
FPGA chip used in this paper is the 5SGS model from the Stratix FSO applications. The academic buildings are located within
V family of chips manufactured by Altera. The transmitter is Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Considering
mainly composed of a signal laser, a DP-IQM, and an IO port for the distance and the requirement for an unobstructed transmis-
data transmission. It does not use a DAC, high-speed bit stream sion link, Terminal A is situated on the roof of Academic Build-
is sent to the DP-IQM through the IO port for modulation, which ing A, while Terminal B is positioned at a window on the 6th floor
differs from conventional satellite communication systems. This of Academic Building B. In order to achieve the highest possible
configuration allows for the modulation and transmission of accuracy in capturing and aligning the two terminals, we utilize
different signals. The automatic bias control algorithm is used a charge-coupled device (CCD) to acquire the optical image of
to adjust the bias point of the signals, enabling them to be the beacon. This allows us to calculate the pixel coordinates and
modulated into various optical signals for transmission based on deflection angle. Then, a proportional-integral-derivative (PID)
specific requirements. The receiving end of the system consists controller is used to adjust the deflection angle of the optical
of a local laser source, an integrated coherent receiver (ICR), gimbal and correct the pointing of the optical antenna. Finally,
and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The local laser source the stage and fine steering mirror (FSM) are adjusted for precise
and the ICR are used to coherently receive the optical signals. aiming and optimal coupling efficiency in this experiment.
The received signals are sampled by the ADC, and the data At the receiver side, the integrated coherent receiver (ICR),
is then processed by the FPGA using real-time algorithms. local oscillator laser (LO), analog-to-digital converter (ADC),
Modulation and demodulation of multiple signals on a highly and FPGA are also integrated on the same transceiver-integrated
integrated, small-sized hardware platform greatly reduces costs, board, as shown in Fig. 4(a). The beam is captured by an Rx
LI et al.: BIDIRECTIONAL MULTI-FORMAT/RATE-ADJUSTABLE INTEGRATED LASER COMMUNICATION SYSTEM 7301106

Fig. 4. (a) Experimental setup of the MF-ILC. (b) Hardware of terminal A. (c) FSO link. (d) Hardware of terminal B.

collimator, transmitted through a 510-meter FSO link, and then

coupled into an optical fiber. The fiber-coupled optical signal is
attenuated by a variable optical attenuator (VOA) and amplified
by an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). The amplified
signal is then received by the ICR. The VOA is used to simulate
loss for extremely sensitive testing. The EDFA is used to amplify
the optical signal and regulate the power within the appropriate
receiving range of the ICR. The detected signals are sequentially
sampled by four 6-bit 5 GSa/s ADCs with an analog bandwidth
of 6 GHz. The sampled signals are sent to the FPGA for real-time
digital signal processing (DSP) and recovery. The algorithmic
changes are automatic and vary depending on the type of re-
Fig. 5. BER versus ROP performance of received signals at different rates for
ceived signal. In the case of BPSK, QPSK, and PDM-QPSK BPSK and QPSK.
signals, the algorithm incorporates ADC synchronization, clock
recovery, constant mode algorithm (CMA), frequency offset TABLE III
recovery, phase recovery, and symbol determination. Gardner RECEIVED SENSITIVITY LIMIT WITH OOK
algorithm is utilized for clock recovery. The number of taps
for the CMA equalizer is 5. The frequency and phase recovery
are based on Viterbi-Viterbi (V-V) algorithm [22]. The BPSK
and QPSK recovery algorithms have minor differences from the
CMA, specifically in how errors are updated. In the process of
distance measurement between terminals A and B, the required As indicated in Table III, the received sensitivity of the OOK
information for mutual transmission is conveyed through the signal at a rate of 10Gbps is −42.89 dBm, when a 20.5%
communication link. This information is subsequently demod- overhead Forward Error Correction (FEC) with a BER threshold
ulated by DSP for further computation. of 2e-2 is applied [23].
Since there is a two-way communication between terminal
IV. RESULTS A and terminal B and the length of the two links is the same,
Variable-rate coherent transmission and ranging measurement in order to get the specific accuracy of ranging it is necessary
performance are tested on the real-time platform. The receiver at to add a section of error length to the link from B to A for
different rates (0.625 Gbps 1.25 Gbps 2.5 Gbps 5 Gbps 10 Gbps) one-way communication. Therefore, a section of adjustable
employs the same set of FPGA receiver, and their results of high precision optical delay line is added as a source of error.
receiver sensitivity are illustrated in Fig. 5(a). It can be seen that Multiple sets of tests on ranging measurement were conducted at
adjacent curves exhibit an approximate 3 dB difference on the a communication rate of 625 Mbps, with varying lengths (100 ps
horizontal axis at the same BER. The results align with the the- 200 ps 300 ps 400 ps 550 ps) of optical delay lines by different
oretical expectations, where the theoretical prediction indicates preset delay. Each set underwent a substantial number of tests,
a 3 dB decrease in receiver sensitivity when the communication and the final results were obtained by averaging their values.
rate is doubled. For instance, the sensitivity of PDM-QPSK at As shown in Table IV, assuming no error in the values of the
10 Gbps is −43.1 dBm, while the corresponding sensitivities for optical delay lines, the calculated ranging error can be obtained
the other rates decrease by ∼3 dB in sequence. by subtracting the measured value from its designated (preset)
7301106 IEEE PHOTONICS JOURNAL, VOL. 16, NO. 2, APRIL 2024

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