Dec 22 2010
Developer of laser communication systems, AOptix Technologies has received a $11.4 million contract for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Free Space Optical Experimental Network Experiment (FOENEX) program. The company will deliver wireless ground and air optical terminals for the program.
As per the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (JHU/APL) subcontract, AOptix will construct and conduct the flight validation of the Free Space Optical (FSO) terminals at a distance of 200 km and up to 10 Gbps on a wide range of static ground and aircraft stations. The DARPA FOENEX program involves multiple stages of air-to-ground and air-to-air flight validations and will span for a period of 20 months.
The aim of the program is to field test high-bandwidth communications systems by combining radio frequency (RF) and FSO technology within a full mesh network. The hybrid RF and FSO link systems would utilize the long range and high capacity of FSO, facilitate data transmission over harsh environmental conditions, and eliminate RF network congestion. The communication system will switch between RF and FSO and will offer downlink and relay of real-time, high volume ISR data traffic.
The wireless bi-directional optical terminals from AOptix use a single aperture and adaptive optics technique of beam control to compensate the atmospheric turbulence in real-time and keep the two terminals locked. Data, voice and video is sent via the air medium across a low power, infrared FSO laser link.
Source: http://www.aoptix.com/