Performance Improvement of the Tracking System of a Satellite Laser Communication

Free Space Optics (FSO) is an optical communication technology that uses light propagating in free space to transmit data between two points. The technology is useful where the physical connections by the means of optical fibre cables are impractical to use due to high costs or other considerations. FSO has been proposed by using a laser. FSO is considered as one of the most popular choices for inter-satellite communication where the performance is limited by “satellite vibration”. FSO cannot achieve a stable and ‘healthy’ link due to such type of vibration. The ultimate disadvantages include misalignment in tracking, signal attenuation and high BER (bit error rate). Hence the satellite vibrations need to be compensated (or minimized). This paper introduces the feed-forward vibration compensation model by introducing PID controller. The simulation results indicate that the proposed method minimizes the vibration effects and hence reduces BER in satellite laser communication system [7]. General Terms Satellite, Vibration effect, PID controller, Feed-forward compensator.