In recent years Space Agencies and some operators have shown growing interest in new technology aimed to reduce the “Cost for In-Orbit Delivery of Capacity”. Such technology have to either offer higher capacity and reduce the cost associated with the required Spacecraft (SC) and Payload (PL) resources. One of the solution that has been pursued and studied since many years in the Research and development areas of Agencies and Industries in Europe is represented by the Photonic technology. In the last years in particular there have been efforts to show the potential advantages of Photonic Payload in terms of reduced number of on-board equipment, reduced mass and power budget, improving performances in terms of traffic thoughput (a good way to arrive actually to the Terabit implementation) and interference protection, reducing risk during the launch phase (robustness towards vibrations,etc.) and enabling the scaling of switching/routing to large payloads where current standard technologies could became impractical. Today satellite system complement ground telecom infrastructures by offering wide band access to the backbone, providing shortcut between backbone edge sites, as well as extending the Earth network in sparsely populated areas and in developing countries or during deployment. As connectivity, broad bandwidth and re-configurability are becoming paramount requirements, satellite operators have to face new challenges. At the same time, this trend is fuelled by the demand for provision of broadband multimedia services. In this way, operators are anticipating the emergence of a new market based on broadband communications via satellite in the next five to ten years, provided that satellite services are cost-effective and flexible. Within this context innovative payload concept have been thoroughly elaborated, taking benefit of capabilities of photonics. Transferring RF/microwave signals onto optical carriers makes it possible to perform processing in the optical domain and benefit from specific attributes such as small size and low mass of fiber optics, as well as multiplexing or switching capabilities. Such photonic RF payloads rely upon conventional low-noise receive and high-power transmit RF sections, but contain a photonic repeater core that effectively support flexible routing of any RF signal from any input port to any output port, at any frequency. Such a payload features optical distribution of centralized Local Oscillator (LO), photonic frequency-conversion and cross-connection RF signals. As discussed above, Photonic technologies are thus expected to bring major benefits in the development of future payloads with broad bandwidth and enhanced flexibility.
Nei recenti anni le agenzie spaziali ed altri operatori hanno mostrato un interesse crescente in nuove tecnologie capaci di ridurre i costi di capacità in orbita (payloads). Tali tenologie hanno anche offerto riduzione di costi relativi a risorse quali ad esempio spacecraft e payload. Una delle soluzioni che è stata perseguita e studiata nelle aree di ricerca e sviluppo di agenzie spaziali ed industrie europee è rappresentata dalla tecnologia fotonica. Negli scorsi anni ci sono stati effort nel dimostrare i potenziali vantaggi di tale tecnologia in termini di ridotto numero di componenti a bordo, ridotto badget di massa e potenza, migliorando le performance in termini di traffico (buona strada per arrivare ad implementazioni in Terabit) e protezione dalle interferenze, riducendo il rischio di danni durante la fase di lancio, e abilitando la riduzione/scaling di sistemi di instradamento per payload in cui tecnologie standard sono ormai divenute impraticabili. Oggi i sistemi satellitari comprendono anche infrastutture a terra, offrendo un ampio accesso alla rete ed estendendo reti a terra in aree scarsamente popolate. Dato che connettività, larga banda e re-configurabilità sono ormai divenuti importanti requisiti, nuove sfide si sono presentate ad aziende e operatori in tale ambito. Allo stesso tempo, questo trend è alimentato dalla domanda di fornitura di servizi multimedia a larga banda. In questo senso, si sta anticipando l'emergenza di un nuovo mercato basato su comunicazioni larga banda via satellite nei prossimi cinque anni, rendendo tali servizi flessibili ed efficienti in termini di costi. In questo contesto un innovativo concetto di payload é stato elaborato, traendo benefici dalla tecnologia fotonica. Ad esempio il trasferendo di segnali RF/microonde su portanti ottiche rende possibile migliorare l'elaborazione nel dominio ottico, traendo benefici anche su piccole dimensioni, piccolo peso per fibre ottiche, nonchè capacità di instradamento o commutazione. Tale tecnologia fotonica conta su un convenzionale ricevitore a basso rumore e su un trasmettitore ad alta potenza, ma contiene un ripetitore fotonico che supporta effettivamente un instradamento flessibile di ogni segnale RF presente in ingresso ad ogni porta di uscita, per qualsiasi frequenza disponibile. Tali payload offrono inoltre caratteristiche quali disribuzione ottica di oscillaori locali (LO) nonchè conversione in frequenza in tecnologia fotonica. Come quindi discusso, la tecnologia fotonica é cosi attesa nel portare maggiori benefici nello sviluppo di futuri payload con banda maggiore ed una migliore flessibilità.
Valutazione di componenti fotonici integrati - applicazione per elaborazione RF on-board
RINALDI, LUCA
2017/2018
Abstract
In recent years Space Agencies and some operators have shown growing interest in new technology aimed to reduce the “Cost for In-Orbit Delivery of Capacity”. Such technology have to either offer higher capacity and reduce the cost associated with the required Spacecraft (SC) and Payload (PL) resources. One of the solution that has been pursued and studied since many years in the Research and development areas of Agencies and Industries in Europe is represented by the Photonic technology. In the last years in particular there have been efforts to show the potential advantages of Photonic Payload in terms of reduced number of on-board equipment, reduced mass and power budget, improving performances in terms of traffic thoughput (a good way to arrive actually to the Terabit implementation) and interference protection, reducing risk during the launch phase (robustness towards vibrations,etc.) and enabling the scaling of switching/routing to large payloads where current standard technologies could became impractical. Today satellite system complement ground telecom infrastructures by offering wide band access to the backbone, providing shortcut between backbone edge sites, as well as extending the Earth network in sparsely populated areas and in developing countries or during deployment. As connectivity, broad bandwidth and re-configurability are becoming paramount requirements, satellite operators have to face new challenges. At the same time, this trend is fuelled by the demand for provision of broadband multimedia services. In this way, operators are anticipating the emergence of a new market based on broadband communications via satellite in the next five to ten years, provided that satellite services are cost-effective and flexible. Within this context innovative payload concept have been thoroughly elaborated, taking benefit of capabilities of photonics. Transferring RF/microwave signals onto optical carriers makes it possible to perform processing in the optical domain and benefit from specific attributes such as small size and low mass of fiber optics, as well as multiplexing or switching capabilities. Such photonic RF payloads rely upon conventional low-noise receive and high-power transmit RF sections, but contain a photonic repeater core that effectively support flexible routing of any RF signal from any input port to any output port, at any frequency. Such a payload features optical distribution of centralized Local Oscillator (LO), photonic frequency-conversion and cross-connection RF signals. As discussed above, Photonic technologies are thus expected to bring major benefits in the development of future payloads with broad bandwidth and enhanced flexibility.I documenti in UNITESI sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14253/81613