Abstract

Optical communications has traditionally suffered from two major limitations: weather and line-of-sight ranges. Efforts at the Naval Electronics Laboratory Center, San Diego, California, have in the past concentrated on high-bandwidth high-availability systems, primarily 10.6-µm heterodyne transceivers. The exploitation of optical carriers to provide extended line-of-sight (ELOS) communications is currently being evaluated. Conventional rf technologies employing 2–30 MHz suffers from spectrum crowding, susceptibility to interference, lack of privacy, and a surprising low availability (50-85% worldwide to ELOS ranges). Considering this, the feasibility of a practical ELOS optical link utilizing existing components is being investigated for ranges of 30–150 miles.

© 1976 Optical Society of America