Posted by John Keller
CAMPBELL, Calif., 18 Dec. 2009. Scientists from the U.S. Air Force demonstrated high-bandwidth real-time free-space laser communications air-to-ground datalink from aircraft flying more than 60 miles apart using laser communications technology from AOptix Technologies Inc. in Campbell, Calif.
The demonstration was part of a two-phase flight test program was part of the Enhanced Air-to-Ground Lasercom System (EAGLS) program of the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, N.Y., which a low-power, eyesafe laser, single bidirectional air-to-ground free space optics link to transmit live simultaneous uncompressed high-definition (HD) video from two different airplane cameras at 2.5 gigabits per second.
For the demonstration AOptix used pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) technology with the company's aircraft-mounted R3.1 lasercom terminal and LCT-5 fixed-ground lasercom terminal, as well as advanced error correction in automatic clock recovery (ACR) and forward error correction (FEC) techniques.
"In- theater operations requiring real-time dissemination of persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance information are no longer limited by the data rate constraints of today's radio frequency (RF) networks," says Dean Senner, president and chief executive officer of AOptix Technologies.
The AOptix wireless bi-directional optical terminals use a single-aperture adaptive optics method of beam control to compensate for atmospheric turbulence while maintaining lock between two terminals, which move video, voice, and data through the air over one invisible, low power, eye-safe, laser link.
For more information contact AOptix online at www.aoptix.com.
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