Testing of a compact 10-Gbps Lasercomm system for maritime platforms

Lasercomm technology continues to be of interest for many applications both in the commercial and defense sectors because of its potential to provide high bandwidth communications that are secure without the need for RF spectrum management. Over the last decade, terrestrial Lasercomm development has progressed from initial experiments in the lab through field demonstrations in airborne and maritime environments. While these demonstrations have shown high capability levels, the complexity, size, weight, and power of the systems has slowed transition into fielded systems. This paper presents field test results of a recently developed maritime Lasercomm terminal and modem architecture with a compact form factor for enabling robust, 10-Gbps class data transport over highly scintillated links as found in terrestrial applications such as air-to-air, air-to-surface, and surface-to-surface links.