The Space Development Agency has started soliciting information from industry on optical communications waveforms and current work with other agencies within the Department of Defense on waveforms and datalinks.
SDA said Monday it will use the responses to the request for information to inform the planning phase for the third tranche of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture that is set to begin in fiscal year 2024 and subsequent acquisition processes that are expected to kick off in FY 2025.
The agency will use the RFI responses to guide the integration of datalinks and waveforms into future tranches of PWSA and reduce risks toward interoperability within the space architecture.
Stakeholders should provide an assessment of effort and schedule needed to add, transmit and receive capabilities at their current SDA-compatible optical communication terminals, or OCTs, to enable pulse-position modulation — or PPM — waveforms and state possible challenges of operating each waveform at several space-to-space ranges.
SDA also wants information on anticipated development and operational limitations, insights on the implementation of burst mode on-off keying and PPM and suggestions for the next revision of the OCT standard.
Responses to the RFI are due Dec. 8.
