Ubiquitous satellite communications are in a leading position for bridging the digital divide. Fulfilling such a mission will require satellite services on par with fibre services, both in bandwidth and cost. Achieving such a performance requires a new generation of communications payloads powered by large-scale processors, enabling a dynamic allocation of hundreds of beams with a total capacity beyond 1 Tbit s−1. The fact that the scale of the processor is proportional to the wavelength of its signals has made photonics a key technology for its implementation. However, one last challenge hinders the introduction of photonics: while large-scale processors demand a modular implementation, coherency among signals must be preserved using simple methods. Here, we demonstrate a coherent photonic-aided receiver meeting such demands. This work shows that a modular and coherent photonic-aided payload is feasible, making way to an extensive introduction of photonics in next generation communications satellites.
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机译：无所不在的卫星通信在弥合数字鸿沟方面处于领先地位。要完成这样的任务，就需要卫星服务在带宽和成本上都与光纤服务相当。为了达到这样的性能，需要由大型处理器提供动力的新一代通信有效载荷，从而能够动态分配数百个波束，总容量超过1 Tbit s -1 。处理器的规模与信号波长成正比这一事实使光子学成为实现该技术的关键技术。但是，最后一个挑战阻碍了光子学的引入：尽管大型处理器需要模块化实现，但是必须使用简单的方法来保持信号之间的一致性。在这里，我们演示了一种满足此类要求的相干光子辅助接收机。这项工作表明，模块化且相干的光子辅助有效载荷是可行的，从而为在下一代通信卫星中广泛引入光子学提供了途径。
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