ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO9257
Open Date: 26/07/2018
Closing Date: 03/10/2018 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 18.1TT.19
Prog. Ref.: ScyLight
Budget Ref.: E/0502-01A – ScyLight
Special Prov.: DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+CH+GB+IE+AT+LU+CZ+RO+CA
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 100-200 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / Optical Communication / Optical Comm. / Optical terminals / Satellites & Probes / RF / Microwave Communication (Platform and Payloads) / Repeaters and Transceivers / Bent-pipe repeaters, regenarative transponders, …
Techology Domains: RF Systems, Payloads and Technologies / Telecommunication Systems/Subsystems / Networking Techniques / Ground Station Systems and Networks / Ground Station System / Advanced Ground Station Design Concepts
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate Telecom & Integrated Applica
Department: Telecom Technologies,Product&Systems Dep
Division: Technologies and Products Division
Contract Officer: Mezzadri, Monica
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 26/07/2018
Update Reason: Tender issue

The objective is to establish the best strategy or strategies for managing the handover of an optical link between two or more ground stations without loss of data.Targeted Improvements:Validated site diversity concepts for optical earth-space links.Site diversity is regularly employed in high radio frequency (e.g. Ka-band) satellite communication systems to maintain the earth-space linkavailability when individual ground stations are rendered inoperable by adverse propagation conditions (e.g. heavy rain). The site diversity system is engineered to support a seamless handover of communications between one earth station and another such that communications are uninterrupted.This activity will investigate the possibility of implementing an equivalent site diversity system forvarious optical earth-space links (eg LEO to ground, GEO to ground, HTS gateway feeds). The operational system shall be capable of autonomously tracking atmospheric conditions at each optical ground terminal site and performing an automatic (user transparent) seamless link handover such that optical link communication is maintained. Candidate strategies shall be identified, simulated and their performance assessed, taking into account mission constraints (e.g. on-board buffer size, latencies, etc.). Required technology developments shall be identified. The outcome may be different optimum strategies for different applications.

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