This is an important factor in all satellites, especially the increasingly popular smaller variants that range from low earth orbit microsats, like those serviced by AAC Microtech, to modular Cubesats. What are the major advantages of free-space optical communication?įSOCs are not only better than microwaves due to their high capacity/frequency and broader bandwidth, but they are well suited to airborne and satellite networks due to their modest power requirements. In the short term this is the solution most operators will implement, but as demand for data grows, the poor transmission rates of microwaves, 1,000 times slower than laser communication, may push FSOC into a more prominent role. The solution more apt to work in remote areas is increasing existing microwave satellite coverage. One solution to the growing need for network capacity is simply installing more fibre optic cabling, but fibre optics are uneconomic in sparsely populated or inhospitable regions. Can non-FSOC technologies meet the growing demand for data? It is this set of potential consumers that big tech companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon are keen to monetise. However, half of the world’s population still has no access to the internet due to the monetary or logistical hurdles of current-generation internet infrastructure. ![]() This threefold increase over five years is equivalent to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24%. ![]() In its 2017 white paper, Cisco forecasts that global IP traffic will reach 3.3 Zettabytes (Zb), a measure of data defined by one sextillion bytes, by 2021, up from 1.2Zb in 2016. ![]() What is driving demand for free-space optical communication?įSOC demand is driven by western consumers’ seemingly insatiable demand for data as existing networks in developed regions struggle to increase their capacity. That said, as demand for internet bandwidth grows more companies are exploring how FSOC can be used commercially. An adaptation of current-generation fibre optic broadband, the technology is in its infancy and is mostly used by governments for military and emergency purposes.įSOC is attractive to governments as they do not need to apply for Federal Communication Commission (FCC) authorisation for FSOC’s difficult-to-intercept narrow transmission beam and high bandwidth networks. “Free-space optical communication presents an opportunity for delivering high-speed internet access to the half of the world’s population that is currently without, provided that some of the implementation issues can be overcome.” Anne Margaret Crow, TMT analyst What is free-space optical communication?įree-space optical communication (FSOC) uses lasers to move data through the air and the vacuum between satellites without the need for cables.
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