BridgeComm has reportedly partnered with Space Micro Inc for a two-year development contract from SDA (Space Development Agency) for advanced one-to-many optical communications.
Space Micro and BridgeComm will showcase MOCA’s technology of point to multipoint optical wireless communications and how it can be installed to support multi-domain communications between air, space, sea, and land.
According to Michael Abad-Santos, the Chief Executive Officer of BridgeComm, the company is looking to take advantage of the spaceflight heritage, manufacturing, and modern infrastructure capabilities of Space Micro. The collaboration showcases a crucial step in optical networking, full mesh point-to-multipoint, and free space communications, eventually curbing its threat surface of customers and increasing their space resilience.
Conventional laser communications are one-to-one or a PtP (point-to-point) relationship. With MOCA, which supports PtMP (point-to-multipoint) communications in the optical sector, one inter-satellite optical link can communicate to nearly 40 different satellites in the field of view.
MOCA will also enable SDA and other satellite operators that assign optical inter-satellite links to reduce costs of overall systems and execute different network architectures and topologies for tiered service levels.
David Strobel, Space Micro’s Executive Chair expressed his belief that the collaboration will advance the effectiveness of PtMP communications across various domains, thereby improving national security space communications.
For the record, BridgeComm is a leading provider of OWC (optical wireless communications) services and solutions. Through a global ground station network developed to support complementary mobile and fixed terminals, BridgeComm offers secure, fast, enterprise-level broadband services for various markets, including terrestrial networks for 5G applications and connectivity, space exploration, and airborne lasercom for primary applications comprising surveillance, intelligence, in-flight entertainment, backhaul, and reconnaissance.
On the other hand, Space Micro is a Voyager Space-powered company based in California. The company is an engineering-focused supplier of high-performance, affordable, radiation-hardened communications, digital systems, and electro-optics for applications in civil, commercial, and military space across the world.
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