First commercial space-based FSO laser communication network to deploy in 2017
Reston, VA--Development and vendor selections are underway for an Optical Satellite System (OSS) from Laser Light Communications (Laser Light) that is anticipated to be deployed in Q1 2017 and operational by the middle of 2017. The free-space optical (FSO) communications network—what is believed by Laser Light to be the world's first commercial satellite communications constellation based entirely on optical wave technology—is to be comprised of 12 satellites (8 primary and 4 spares) in medium Earth orbit (10,500 km) with an operating system capacity of 4.8 Tbps, including satellite-to-satellite optical crosslinks and satellite-to-ground optical up/down links of 200 Gbps, without reliance on the radio frequency (RF) spectrum.
Laser Light says it intends on interconnecting its proposed OSS with the global fiber network—terrestrial and undersea, establishing a truly meshed optical network with worldwide coverage at service levels and connectivity options previously unattainable by other satellite platforms.
Robert H. Brumley, Laser Light Communication senior managing director says, “Laser Light's [trade mark] potential service delivery advantage is made possible by the decades of research conducted by Raytheon Company in the field of free space optical lasers …. [and Laser Light] will benefit from Raytheon's technology, engineering expertise and pending patents through an exclusive licensing agreement, enabling the commercial communications market to benefit from the deployment of this next- generation, highly complementary all Optical Satellite System."
The key enablers for the OSS are Raytheon's optical-wave patent-pending StarBeam technologies, which take full advantage of the latest advances in lasers, optical networking technologies, and satellite payload size, weight, and power designs, including technology that Raytheon developed in U.S. Government programs.
"With year over year increases in the volume of global Internet traffic, demand for high rate data transport potentially places Laser Light [trade mark] in a unique market position …," said Clifford W. Beek, Laser Light managing director. "Our aim is to offer telecom service providers, commercial enterprises, and government users a high quality service with an efficient technology platform--an all optical integrated satellite and terrestrial communications platform. It is expected that Laser Light's global routing options will align telecom carriers with service capabilities reaching symmetrical bidirectional connectivity at OC-192 speeds. Ultimately, the end customer stands the most to gain from the increased transport efficiencies offered by
Laser Light [trade mark]."
Laser Light Communications is a solely held subsidiary of Pegasus Global Holdings (www.pegasusglobalholdings.com).
SOURCE: Laser Light Communications; www.laserlightcomms.com/newsroom.php#post1
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.