Optical Wireless Communication: an innovative technology for data transmission in satellites

In this thesis, I briefly introduce the principles of Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) by focusing on their advantage with respect to traditional communication systems (RF and cabled). I present the space scenario as a promising OWC technology application and introduce a novel OWC solution to transmit data onboard satellites during the Assembly, Integration, and Test (AIT) phase. In the frame of the Transmission of Optical Wireless signals on telecom Satellites (TOWS), funded by ESA, we designed, realized, and tested an innovative OWC system able to replace the physical cables of the MIl-STD-1553B, without any modification of the protocol. The system was designed to perform data transmission in three different application scenarios: among devices inside the spacecraft (Intra-SC), among devices outside the spacecraft (Extra-SC), and among the devices during the AIT phase. In this work, I present the details of the system design, the preliminary characterizations of the system and communication tests, and the experimental results that show the transmission of the MIL-STD-1553B protocol over optical wireless links.