Optical links between Earth and space have the potential to overcome bandwidth limits and spectrum regulatory challenges inherent to legacy RF communication. Free space optical communication is on the verge of commercial breakthrough for LEO satellites, feeder links to GEO satellites have been proven to work with lasers, and a new wave of lunar exploration sees its communication challenges solved with optical signals.
WORK Microwave’s Digital Optical Ground Station (DOG) suite is a revolutionary end-to-end solution to establish multi Gbaud & Gbit optical links for both space-to-earth and earth-to-space directions. It is a worldwide unique, field-proven commercial solution for ground segment.
WORK Microwave offers all components independently, or you can choose to take advantage of our System Integration Services.
Instead of dealing with increasing bandwidth demands in a crowded and regulated spectrum, optical communication has the potential to provide more throughput with less effort. Non real-time critical data downlinks can easily leverage geo redundancy in Earth stations to overcome the occasional obstruction of the optical path due to weather conditions.
A-Series DOG suite products at a ground station network to support commercial and scientific missions transferring data from Deep Space back to Earth. First missions carrying respective optical payloads in 2024 and beyond are yet to come. WORK Microwave is proud to be part of the ecosystem that will revolutionize the exploration of outer space.
EDRS has paved the way. Increasing bandwidth demand in communication will make optical gateway links a powerful tool in the support of RF infrastructure, be it as overlay system or using geo redundancy the combination of optical and RF communication will provide the throughputs that make satellite systems a prime network option.
Due to its strong security capabilities, optical communication is a natural choice as a critical technology for military communication. Satellite-to-satellite connections via laser are already in the test phase, so it is only a matter of time before the technology is also used for satellite-to-earth connections.
WORK Microwave’s optical communication engineers have created a very compact and optimized ground station architecture to eliminate large area need, complexity, extra converters and amplifiers. Our all-indoor equipment can be mounted in small rack cabinets.
The components of DOG suite are:
Upon request, WORK Microwave provides system integration services for the Digital Optical Ground Station (DOG).
Our DOG system integration services include:
WORK Microwave’s first two Digital Optical Ground Station products have been deployed in 2021:
AR-80-OPT Optical Multi-Mission Receiver and FSOD1 Free Space Optical Detector.
Supporting early implementations of the upcoming CCSDS 142.0-B-1 standard, it is the world’s first multi-mission support solutions capable of receiving and processing optical communication signals from space to Earth up to 3 Gbps.
Currently, the DOG-1 multi-mission optical modem is in development. It will be capable of receiving, decoding and buffering CCSDS standardised free space optical waveforms. The DOG-1 modem will be first unit in the DOG suite of products and this project will prototype the DOG-1 modem and allow technology de-risking and functional testing of the technology required for the DOG-1 modem.
A DOG digitizer to enhance the DOG-1 Multi-Mission Optical Modem.
A DOG modem dedicated to support the processing of optical links between space and Earth.
A DOG receiver dedicated to support the processing of optical direct-to-earth links.
Fibre-coupled DOG optical detector for the reception of optical free space communication.
