High-speed laser link

German start-up company ViaLight Communications’s laser system transmits large amounts of data from aircraft to an optical ground station up to 100 km away. Two-way communication is possible at 1 Gbit/s. Future developments could drive this up to an astonishing 100 Gbit/s and more.

Here, the enthusiastic team presents their latest MLT-20 Micro Laser Communication Terminal for aircraft using technology based on new research at the Institute of Communications and Navigation of Germany’s DLR space agency. Weighing only 7kg, it can also be used on smaller unmanned aerial vehicles.

The technology also benefits from expertise the ViaLight founding members got from working under contracts with ESA and DLR investigating the characteristics of the laser links between ESA’s Artemis and Germany’s TerraSAR-X satellites.

ViaLight Communications is a spin-off from DLR and was founded in 2009 through ESA Technology Transfer Programme’s Business Incubation Centre Bavaria.