In this study a feasibility analysis of a satellite-to-ground QKD link employing the Decoy-State BB84 protocol for both LEO and MEO satellite constellations is presented. Considering realistic atmospheric conditions and system assumptions, a comparison of the QKD performance between low and medium satellite orbits over an existing OGS network is reported.
For enabling and realizing long-haul Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), satellite communication infrastructure is exploited to deliver symmetric encryption keys to ground segments. In this direction the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (Euro-QCI) initiative, supported by the European Space Agency (ESA), aims to build a secure quantum communication network that will span across the EU. In this framework, ESA has selected three observatories in Greece to support European activities in optical communications and QKD systems. In this study, a QKD feasibility analysis between a LEO satellite constellation (100 satellites) and the three selected Optical Ground Stations (OGSs) in Greece, using an entangled based QKD protocol is presented. This contribution focuses on the performance evaluation and the applicability validation of an entanglement-based QKD system in a pragmatic regional segment of Euro-QCI. The time varying atmospheric channel is modeled taking into account the joint cloud coverage of the OGSs, the turbulence, the pointing errors and the solar background radiance. The performance of the regional entangled-based QKD system is validated in terms of annual availability as well as the number of shared distilled key bits between the ground stations per year.
Free space optics (FSO) is considered a promising technology for satellite communications due to its various advantages over radio-frequency (RF) systems, such as higher throughput, lower energy consumption and smaller mass. Nevertheless, optical satellite communication systems are heavily affected by atmospheric impairments, mainly by clouds. In order to cope with cloud coverage, site diversity technique is employed at the expense of installing extra optical ground stations (OGSs). As a consequence, the interest in ground network optimization is rapidly increasing with the aim to guarantee a given service availability. In this paper, a low-complexity optimization algorithm for ground network design in optical geostationary (GEO) satellite systems is presented, taking into account the spatial correlation between sites. Specifically, the objective is to choose a group of candidate OGSs that minimizes the overall cost of the ground network and meets certain availability requirements for every time period (thus incorporating the temporal variability of cloud coverage). Moreover, an extension of the methodology to optical medium-Earth-orbit (MEO) satellite systems is provided. Lastly, the performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated via numerical experiments.
The globally introduced 5G mobile networks enable a variety of broadband applications from massive machine type communications (mMTC) to ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC). Within this context, optical technologies such as radio over fiber (RoF), radio over free space optics (RoFSO) and optical satellite networks are designated to provide excellent backhaul services. In this paper, the power optimization problem is investigated for a fully optical hybrid satellite network. Specifically, the dual hop decode-and-forward optical downlink is considered with a geostationary satellite source, an optical ground gateway and an optical user equipment. The power allocation problem is formatted as a convex optimization problem under separate total and peak power constraints and then a methodology is proposed for the maximization of system's capacity. Moreover, the proposed methodology takes into account the atmospheric attenuation, the optical channel correlation and turbulence effects and its performance is evaluated through numerical simulations and comparisons with other power allocation implementations. Results regarding the spectral efficiency are presented and commented proving the proposed methodology's superiority.
In this paper, a methodology for the estimation of aperture averaging factor for a central obscured aperture is briefly presented and tested against experimental results. The modeling is based on the methodology reported in the NASA’s report edited by Fried [10]. For the validation of the methodology, experimental data from the ARTEMIS bi-directional optical link is employed. Experimental data sessions from 2003 with the ARTEMIS GEO satellite as space segment and the 1.016m Cassegrain central obscured telescope of ESA in Tenerife at 2.4km altitude as ground segment are used.
In this paper, a methodology for the generation of cloud free line of site time series for low earth orbit optical satellite communication systems is presented. The proposed methodology is based on the synthesis of 3D cloud fields employing Integrated Liquid Water Content (ILWC) statistics. The methodology captures the temporal and spatial variability of cloud coverage and takes into account the varying elevation angle of the LEO optical link with each optical ground station (OGS) and the altitude of each OGS for the estimation of the CFLOS probability. The ILWC statistical parameters required for the CFLOS time series are taken from ERA Interim data base, European Centre for Medium- Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Finally CFLOS numerical results are reported and some significant conclusions are drawn.
KEYWORDS: Radio over Fiber, Single mode fibers, Digital signal processing, Antennas, Analog electronics, Signal attenuation, Signal to noise ratio, Optical amplifiers, Receivers, Networks
The 5G era is nearly upon us, and poses several challenges for system designers; one important question is how the (soon to be standardized) mmWave bands of wireless mobile access can coexist harmoniously with optical links in fixed telecom networks. To this end, we present a Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) backhauling concept, interfaced to a 60-GHz indoor femto-cell via a field-installed optical fiber link. We successfully demonstrate generation of a RoF signal up to 1 Gb/s and transmit it optically over 43 km of deployed Single Mode Fiber (SMF), as well as investigate the performance of the 60-GHz access link as a function of distance. The optical link introduces negligible degradation, contrasting the effect of multipath fading in the 60-GHz wireless channel; the latter requires adaptive equalization using offline DSP. The proposed scheme is further validated by demonstration of a 60-GHz Remote Antenna Unit (RAU) concept, handling real traffic from commercial Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) equipment. Proper RAU operation at 1.25 Gb/s is achieved, accommodating true data packets from a Media Converter emitting at 1310 nm through an in-building fiber link. System performance is confirmed through Bit Error Rate (BER) and Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) measurements. EVMs of ~11 and 19% are achieved with BPSK signals, for distances of 1 and 2 m respectively. As standardization of mmWave technologies moves from 5G testbeds to field-trial prototypes, successful demonstration of such 60-GHz wireless access scenarios over a telecom operator’s commercial fiber infrastructure is even more relevant.
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