ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10471
Open Date: 05/03/2021
Closing Date: 28/05/2021 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 20.1TI.11
Prog. Ref.: OP-Other Act. Prod.
Budget Ref.: E/0534-05A – OP-Other Act. Prod.
Special Prov.: BE+DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+ES+SE+CH+GB+IE+AT+NO+PT+GR+LU+CZ+RO+PL+HU+CA
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / Optical Communication / Optical Comm ¿ BB / Software
Technology Domains: Optoelectronics / Laser Technologies / Laser Sources
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate Telecom & Integrated Applica
Department: Telecom Technologies,Product&Systems Dep
Division: Institutional and European Programme Off
Contract Officer: Rinaudo, Nicole
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 05/03/2021
Update Reason: Loaded a new Clarification(English version)

The objective of this activity is to develop ranging functionality for optical communication terminals based on the physical layer standardised by the consultative committee for space data systems (CCSDS). The performance shall be verified via numerical simulation and breadboard implementation. Targeted Improvements:Larger than 10 times improvement in ranging accuracy compared toRF systems. This has not so far been implemented in optical communication terminals. Description: The consultative committee for space data systems (CCSDS) has recently issued their first standard on optical communication as a blue book, the high photon efficiency (HPE). In addition the CCSDS will append the physical layer for HPE with Optical On-Off Keying (O3K) this year. These standards are designed, around optical links operating from the photon starved regime to high-data rate scenarios, up to 10 Gbps. This can be deep-space links over long, distances, short links from LEO down to Earth (DTE) or inter-satellite links (ISL). This standard offers the opportunity to add one-way and two-way ranging functionalities to an optical, communications terminals without modification of the physical layer. Ranging can occur simultaneous to optical links without any interference with, the data transfer. This is especially interesting for a more and more crowded LEO orbits. This study shall design implementations of such a ranging based on the CCSDSphysical layers functionality and trade-off the performance vs several link scenarios via numerical simulations. The most promisingtechnique shall be implemented.