Heterogeneous optical network and power allocation scheme for inter-CubeSat communication.

In this Letter, the problems of achieving inter-CubeSat communication through radio frequency (RF) and lasers are explained, and the feasibility of using visible light communication to replace RF and lasers is investigated. On this basis, a novel, to the best of our knowledge, heterogeneous optical network with high flexibility is proposed, in which CubeSats are divided into clusters in pairs. CubeSats in each cluster utilize different optical modulation methods to achieve a compromise between optical power efficiency and spectral efficiency, as well as avoid inter-CubeSat interference. Furthermore, under the maximum power and minimum capacity constraints, a closed-form optical power allocation solution minimizing an overall bit error rate (BER) is investigated. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme is more preferred in practical systems and can achieve 3.8 dB gains compared to the conventional power allocation scheme at a BER of 10.