Free Space Optical Communications Research at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

摘要

Free space optical (FSO) communication has enjoyed a renewal of interest in the past decade driven by increasing data rate requirements and decreasing amounts of radio frequency spectrum. These needs exist in both the commercial and military sectors. However military communications requirements differ in other ways. At the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) we have been conducting research on FSO communications for over ten years with an emphasis on tactical applications. NRL's FSO research has covered propagation studies in the maritime domain, new component development, and systems demonstrations. In addition NRL has developed both conventional, direct, laser communications systems and retro-reflecting systems. In this paper we review some of this work and discuss possible future applications of FSO communications