A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) provides a common architecture to feed both optical and RF phased arrays to produce steerable co-boresighted optical and RF beams from a single chip. The PIC may be used for guidance, mobile data links, autonomous vehicles and 5G cellular communications. A plurality of switches are monolithically fabricated on the PIC with the optical feed network to switch the optical power of the phase-modulated optical channel signals between the integrated optical antennas and the RF antennas to produce steerable optical and RF beams. The photo-detectors and RF antennas may be discrete components or integrated with the optical feed network. To ensure that the optical and RF beams are co-boresighted (within a specified angular tolerance) for the same steering commands, the PIC is positioned within the RF antenna array footprint.

The disclosed systems, apparatuses and methods are directed to controlling optical channel signal and an optical network equipment in optical networks. The methods comprise adjusting an optical channel spectrum based on bit error rates (BER) measured for a dithered optical channel signal. The optical channel spectrum is dithered such that a signal reference frequency is alternated between a first second signal reference frequency and a second signal reference frequency. BER is measured and analysed separately for the dithered signal reference frequency being detuned to the first and to the second signal reference frequencies. Based on a BER difference between BER at the first signal reference frequency and BER at the second signal reference frequency, the optical channel spectrum is shifted with regards to frequency in order to improve optical network performance.

Improvements in secure communication using drones. The communication uses aircraft to provide a secure communication link that prevents undesirable reception. The secure link can be between two people, groups or more specific people. Optical transmission can be from laser, infrared, ultraviolet, white light or a particular wavelength of light. One or multiple of aircraft to relay information between senders and receivers. The aircraft can be drones that operate within buildings or with overhead aircraft. The aircraft can intelligently follow or lead a person to maintain a line-of-sight. Each user can have their own tracking aircraft and the aircraft can communicate between each other using light and/or wireless communication to optimize line-of-sight between the aircraft over geographic medium. The geographic medium may include one or more of terrain, air, water, and space. The object may be a soldier, vehicle, drone, or ballistic.

An optical wireless unit including an optical circulator, a collimator, and a lens is provided. The collimator is configured to receive an optical signal via a first port of the optical circulator. The collimator is coupled with a second port of the optical circulator and is configured to transmit the optical signal into air to form a first free space optical wireless signal. The lens is coupled with the collimator and a third port of the optical circulator and is configured to receive and focus a second free space optical wireless signal to the collimator. The first free space optical wireless signal has a wavelength .sub.0, the second free space optical wireless signal has a wavelength .sub.N, and N is a positive integer.

The disclosure provides for a system that includes a network controller configured to determine a network configuration of a network and cause the network to implement the network configuration. The network controller may be configured to determine that an overall link bandwidth for a particular geographic area is less than a set bandwidth amount based on link bandwidth information for possible links directly connected to the particular geographic area. Based on a difference between the overall link bandwidth and the set bandwidth amount, the network controller may be configured to determine additional links to connect to the particular geographic area in a given network configuration of the network. The network controller may then send instructions to the plurality of nodes of the network to cause the plurality of nodes to implement the given network configuration and transmit client data at the given point in time.

Various of the disclosed embodiments relate to line-of-sight (LOS), e.g., optical, based networks. Systems and methods for determining where to place and how to configure nodes in an optically connected network across a geographic region are provided. Various factors concerning the region may be collected, including, e.g.,: building locations and height, building types, population densities, backbone connection locations, recurring weather factors, geographic elevation, etc. The algorithm may iteratively place nodes based upon the accessible range of a preceding contemplated node position.

The system and method for secure optical communication, laser communication, and target designation. The system locks lasers at an absolute frequency reference and uses frequency tuning, frequency hopping, and frequency encoding techniques for optical communications. The system encodes information in the frequency context. An optional notch filter is used on a receiver to reduce blinding or saturation by adversaries. The system hops frequencies around an atomic reference. In some cases the system uses a frequency comb and a comb line of the second.

An optical communication terminal is configured to operate in two different complementary modes of full duplex communication. In one mode, the terminal transmits light having a first wavelength and receives light having a second wavelength along a common free space optical path. In the other mode, the terminal transmits light having the second wavelength and receives light having the first wavelength. The terminal includes a steering mirror that directs light to and from a dichroic element that creates different optical paths depending on wavelength, and also includes spatially separated emitters and detectors for the two wavelengths. A first complementary emitter/detector pair is used in one mode, and a second pair is used for the other mode. The system also includes at least two ferrules. Each ferrule operates with a single emitter/detector pair. The ferrules are designed to operate interchangeably with either emitter/detector pair.

A highly robust communication system capable of stably realizing a three-dimensionalized network over a wide area can be provided, in which a propagation delay is low, a simultaneous connection with a large number of terminals in a wide-range area and a high-speed communication can be performed, and a system capacity per unit area is large, in radio communications with terminal apparatuses including devices for the IoT, in mobile communications of the fifth generation or the like. The communication system comprises a plurality of radio relay for relaying a radio communication between a terrestrial base station and a terminal apparatus. The plurality of radio relay stations include a plurality of first radio relay stations capable of communicating with each other, each first radio relay station being provided in a floating object controlled to be located in a floating airspace with an altitude less than or equal to 100 [km] by an autonomous control or an external control, and a second radio relay station for relaying a communication between the plurality of first radio relay stations and the terrestrial base station, the second radio relay station being provided in a floating object moored on the ground or the sea so as to be located in a floating airspace with an altitude less than or equal to 100 [km].

Systems and methods for improved content streaming and downloading. The system enables content to be transmitted to wireless base stations (WBSs) using unicast on the core network side of a cellular network to avoid incompatibilities associated with network broadcast technologies such as Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (eMBMS) and Long-Term Evolution Broadcast (LTE-B). At the same time, the system enable content to be broadcast, or transmitted to multiple user equipment (UE) in a single transmission to reduce wireless bandwidth consumption. The system can include a commodity server to receive requests from WBSs, place them in a chronological list based on network latency, and then transmit content to each WBS in a synchronized unicast manner. Each WBS can then transmit the content to a plurality of UEs with minimal buffer required due to the pre-synchronization.