The use of optical fibers is being considered for a guided missile system. The proposed missile, with a TV or other imaging seeker, would use a single optical fiber and wavelength multiplexing to relay pictures back to an operator and carry his commands forward. A full duplex, fiber optic link for this system operating over a single fiber at 0.85 μm and 1.06 μm will be described. Video data up to 3 MHz along with nine telemetry channels is transmitted in one direction. A lower data rate signal consisting of six command channels to control missile functions is transmitted in the other direction. Such key areas to be discussed are optical signal isolation techniques between video and command signals, optical power budget, modulation formats, and electronic time-interleaved multiplexing to form the composite video and command channels.

Date Published: 25 February 1981
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 0239, Guided Wave Optical and Surface Acoustic Wave Devices: Systems and Applications, (25 February 1981); doi: 10.1117/12.959218

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0239:
Guided Wave Optical and Surface Acoustic Wave Devices: Systems and Applications
Chen S. Tsai, Editor(s)