Adaptive power and divergence to improve airborne networking and communications

Free-space optical (FSO) links have the potential to provide high-bandwidth channels for data and communications applications. FSO can complement existing radio-frequency (RF) links by allowing the rapid transfer of high-volume data, such as images, that are ill suited to the lower bit rate RF links. A significant challenge for FSO links is the need for the transmitter and receiver to be tightly aligned to establish a viable connection. The inaccuracies inherent in position calculation and pointing equipment are a major part of this challenge. In this paper, we explore the use of adaptive transmitter power and adaptive beam divergence to overcome the inherent inaccuracies by relaxing the alignment criteria.