The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 19, 2018
Filed:
Jan. 08, 2016
Don M. Boroson, Needham, MA (US);
Bryan S. Robinson, Arlington, MA (US);
Daniel V. Murphy, Concord, MA (US);
Jason Stewart, Stow, MA (US);
Farzana I. Khatri, Lexington, MA (US);
Steven Constantine, Westford, MA (US);
David Jason Geisler, Watertown, MA (US);
Timothy M. Yarnall, Amherst, NH (US);
Zachary Darling, Somerville, MA (US);
Don M. Boroson, Needham, MA (US);
Bryan S. Robinson, Arlington, MA (US);
Daniel V. Murphy, Concord, MA (US);
Jason Stewart, Stow, MA (US);
Farzana I. Khatri, Lexington, MA (US);
Steven Constantine, Westford, MA (US);
David Jason Geisler, Watertown, MA (US);
Timothy M. Yarnall, Amherst, NH (US);
Zachary Darling, Somerville, MA (US);
Massachusetts Institute Technology, Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
Challenges of direct-to-Earth (DTE) laser communications (lasercom) between spacecraft in low-Earth orbit (LEO) or medium-Earth orbit (MEO) and ground terminals can include short duration transmission windows, long time gaps between the transmission windows, deleterious effects of atmospheric turbulence, and the inability to operate in cloudy weather. Direct-link optical communications systems described herein can have data rates that are high enough to empty high-capacity on-board buffer(s) (e.g., having a capacity of at least about 1 Tb to hundreds of Tb) of a spacecraft in a single pass lasting only tens of seconds to a few minutes (e.g., 1-15 minutes), and overprovisioning the buffer capacity accounts for variations in the latency between links. One or more distributed networks of compact optical ground terminals, connected via terrestrial data networks, receive and demodulate WDM optical data transmissions from a plurality of orbiting spacecraft (e.g., satellites).