Optical links sizing for broadband geostationary satellite feeder link

In this paper, optical uplink and downlink are studied in order to ensure the feeder link of the next generation of broadband geostationary satellite with capacity around 1Tbps. For such capacity, optical links are commonly based on pre-amplified optical receiver with Single Mode Fiber (SMF) optical amplifier. Adaptive optic systems are necessary to compensate the distortions embedded by the atmospheric turbulences that decrease the injection efficiency of the downlink and the pointing accuracy of uplink. This paper is focused on the performances achievable with a simple system based on a single fine pointing mechanism. Considering a digital optical feeder link that is transparent with respect to the user segment, a promising capacity per satellite of 300GHz is achieved.