Duarte Vanessa C, Prata João G, Ribeiro Carlos F, Nogueira Rogério N, Winzer Georg, Zimmermann Lars, Walker Rob, Clements Stephen, Filipowicz Marta, Napierała Marek, Nasiłowski Tomasz, Crabb Jonathan, Kechagias Marios, Stampoulidis Leontios, Anzalchi Javad, Drummond Miguel V
Instituto de Telecomunicações, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal.
IHP, Im Technologiepark 25, 15236, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany.
Nat Commun. 2019 Apr 30;10(1):1984. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-10077-4.
Ubiquitous satellite communications are in a leading position for bridging the digital divide. Fulfilling such a mission will require satellite services on par with fibre services, both in bandwidth and cost. Achieving such a performance requires a new generation of communications payloads powered by large-scale processors, enabling a dynamic allocation of hundreds of beams with a total capacity beyond 1 Tbit s. The fact that the scale of the processor is proportional to the wavelength of its signals has made photonics a key technology for its implementation. However, one last challenge hinders the introduction of photonics: while large-scale processors demand a modular implementation, coherency among signals must be preserved using simple methods. Here, we demonstrate a coherent photonic-aided receiver meeting such demands. This work shows that a modular and coherent photonic-aided payload is feasible, making way to an extensive introduction of photonics in next generation communications satellites.
无处不在的卫星通信通信在弥合数字鸿沟方面处于领先地位。要完成这一使命，卫星服务在带宽和成本上都需要与光纤服务相当。要实现这样的性能，需要由大规模处理器驱动的新一代通信有效载荷，能够动态分配数百束波束，总容量超过1太比特每秒。处理器的规模与其信号波长成正比这一事实，使得光子学成为其实现的关键技术。然而，最后一个挑战阻碍了光子学的引入：虽然大规模处理器需要模块化实现，但必须使用简单方法保持信号之间的相干性。在此，我们展示了一种满足此类需求的相干光子辅助接收机。这项工作表明，模块化且相干的光子辅助有效载荷是可行的，为光子学在下一代通信卫星中的广泛引入铺平了道路。
