A system and method for providing terrestrial and planetary point-to-point, high-altitude platform, and satellite broadband data services by using free-space optical communications link in conjunction with a high-data-rate wideband frequency modulation waveform. The architecture supports data capacities greater than an order of magnitude over the most capable current terrestrial, satellite constellation, and outer space communication systems. The optical links use optical wideband frequency modulation permitting compact optical terminals and avoidance of cost- and mass-intensive digital processing in the communication chain. For terrestrial applications, provided are high-altitude relay platforms to maximize availability and distance between communication stations. For space applications, provided are space-fed lens satellite radio frequency antennas to generate many user beams while employing a novel frequency conversion scheme for compact accommodation on small satellites, overlapping ground coverage from multiple satellites, high-altitude platforms relaying signals between satellites and gateways as needed, and compatibility with conventional radio frequency user terminals.

Disclosed herein is a system and method for facilitating estimation of a spatial profile of an environment based on a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) based technique. By repurposing the optical energy for communications needs, the present disclosure facilitates spatial profile estimation by optical means while facilitating free-space optical communication.

A two-beam steering device comprising two single-beam steering devices and a motorized, rotating base stage, wherein each single-beam steering device is able to steer an electromagnetic wave beam in a full field of regard, wherein the two single-beam steering devices are fixed on top of the rotating base stage. The two-beam steering device can point the two individual beams into any direction pair in the entire field of regard with full flexibility.

Because of the line-of-sight character of optical wireless communication and a limited field-of-view of optical receivers, the coverage of an access point and the overlapping coverage area of adjacent access points in an optical system are smaller as compared to a RF system. It turns more challenging to support an end point (110) to roam securely in an optical multi-cell wireless communication network. To speed up the derivation of a new pairwise transient key with a new access point during a handover procedure, the end point of this invention comprises a controller (118) that is configured to act as a second supplicant (1181), on behalf of a first supplicant (1186) comprised in a host processor (1185), to communicate with an authenticator to establish a new pairwise transient key for the end point (110) and a candidate access point, and an active pairwise transient key with the currently associated access point is used to secure the communication for new key derivation.

A technology is described for optical communication. An example of the technology can include receiving an event stream containing indications of independent events detected by pixels in an event camera. An event may be a change in brightness detected by a pixel in the pixel array, and the pixel independently generates an indication of the event in response to detecting the event. The event stream can be demultiplexed into a plurality of communication streams containing related events associated with a plurality of communication sources. The events contained in a communication stream can be aggregated based in part on an event proximity and an event time that associates an event with other events contained in the event stream. The plurality of communication streams can be demodulated to extract optically transmitted information from the plurality of communication streams, which can be sent to a data consumer.

In an optical wireless communication system including: an optical wireless communication apparatus that moves along with a first optical wireless station; and a second optical wireless station opposed to the first optical wireless station, the optical wireless communication apparatus includes at least one reference light transmitting unit that transmits reference light to the second optical wireless station with a position in front in a moving direction of the first optical wireless station defined as a transmission position, the second optical wireless station includes a reference light receiving unit that receives the reference light transmitted from the at least one reference light transmitting unit, an estimation unit that estimates an influence of atmospheric air on transmission of signal light based on a reception state of the reference light received by the reference light receiving unit, a compensation unit that performs compensation processing on the signal light based on the influence of the atmospheric air estimated by the estimation unit, and a signal light transmitting unit that transmits the signal light on which the compensation processing has been performed by the compensation unit in an arrival direction of the reference light.

Adaptive communications focal plane arrays that may be implemented in, e.g., a specially-configured camera that can be utilized to receive and/or process information in the form of optical beams are presented. A specialized focal plane array (FPA) having a plurality of optical detectors is utilized, where one or more optical detectors are suppressed such that data is not allowed to be output from the one or more suppressed optical detectors, and only a significantly smaller number or subset of optical detectors receiving optical beams are allowed to output data. In this way, the rate at which data is to be output by an adaptive communications FPA (ACFPA) can be significantly reduced.

An example device may include an optical modulator configured to generate an optical beam encoding network data, an optical power amplifier configured to adjust a transmitted power of the optical beam, and a transmit beam angle mechanism configured to adjust a beam direction of the optical beam and to transmit the optical beam to a remote receiver over a free-space optical link. Example devices may include a controller configured to receive backchannel data from the remote receiver and modify a characteristic of the optical beam based on the backchannel data. Various other devices, systems, and methods are also disclosed.

This invention relates to a power supply system for an optical wireless communication system where a modem (212) is connected to a plurality of transceivers (11). The underlying idea being that the transceivers (11) are powering the modem (212), rather than the modem (212) powering the transceivers (11). To achieve this, a power combiner is provided that can receive power from the transceivers (11). The transceivers (11) power down when no endpoint is detected and use a subset of emitters, in which case the modem (212) can also be switched to a lower power mode.

Systems and methods for performing operations based on LIDAR communications are described. An example device may include one or more processors and a memory coupled to the one or more processors. The memory includes instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the device to receive data associated with a modulated optical signal emitted by a transmitter of a first LIDAR device and received by a receiver of a second LIDAR device coupled to a vehicle and the device, generate a rendering of an environment of the vehicle based on information from one or more LIDAR devices coupled to the vehicle, and update the rendering based on the received data. Updating the rendering includes updating an object rendering of an object in the environment of the vehicle. The instructions further cause the device to provide the updated rendering for display on a display coupled to the vehicle.