A precise pointing technique for free space optical links and networks using kinematic GPS and local sensors

摘要

In free space optical (FSO) communication networks, pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) techniques are needed to establish and maintain optical links among the static or mobile nodes in the network. First, this paper describes a precise pointing technique to steer the local directional laser beam of an optical transceiver to a target optical transceiver at a remote transceiver node. The pointing technique utilizes Real-Time Kinematic GPS coordinates, local angular sensors, and a reference baseline, to retrieve accurate navigation information (roll, pitch, yaw) of the mobile or static platform that carries an optical transceiver. Through experiments using gimbal pointing stages, we have demonstrated "dead-reckoning" pointing accuracy in the milliradian range in our outdoor testbed. Second, we provide an application example of the pointing method in a bi-connected ring network, in which the pointing technique is combined with heuristic algorithms for dynamic reconfiguration of ring network topology. The heuristic algorithms achieve near optimal solutions in a short amount of time. Lastly, we present a GPS-based autonomous reconfiguration scenario for mobile nodes, which combines the PAT technique and heuristic algorithms.