Analytical Channel Modeling and Stability Aware Optimization of Optical Inter Satellite Links
Abstract
Optical inter-satellite links (OISLs) are key enablers for high-capacity space networks and next-generation satellite constellations. However, their extreme directionality makes link reliability highly sensitive to platform-induced pointing jitter, which causes random misalignment between the transmitter and receiver beams. In this paper, we develop a tractable closed-form statistical channel model for point-to-point OISLs subject to independent pointing errors at both terminals. Accurate Gaussian main-lobe approximations are applied to the transmitter far-field pattern and receiver coupling efficiency. This transforms the diffraction-based channel response into closed-form expressions for the channel-gain distribution, outage probability, and ergodic capacity. The analytical results are validated through Monte Carlo simulations and used to study the impact of terminal stability, beam divergence, and link margin on OISL performance. The results show that outage probability is governed by the weaker terminal in terms of pointing stability, while improving only the stronger terminal provides minimal additional benefit. In contrast, the ergodic-capacity penalty depends on the combined stability of both terminals, revealing a fundamental distinction between reliability and throughput metrics. The proposed framework provides practical design guidelines for selecting beam parameters and specifying pointing and tracking requirements under varying levels of platform instability.
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BibTeX
@misc{safi2026analytical,
title = {{Analytical Channel Modeling and Stability Aware Optimization of Optical Inter Satellite Links}},
author = {Hossein Safi and Ziheng Wang and Stijn Mast and Harald Haas and Iman Tavakkolnia},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.17431},
eprint = {2609.17431},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17431},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Analytical Channel Modeling and Stability Aware Optimization of Optical Inter Satellite Links
AU - Hossein Safi
AU - Ziheng Wang
AU - Stijn Mast
AU - Harald Haas
AU - Iman Tavakkolnia
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.17431
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17431
AB - Optical inter-satellite links (OISLs) are key enablers for high-capacity space networks and next-generation satellite constellations. However, their extreme directionality makes link reliability highly sensitive to platform-induced pointing jitter, which causes random misalignment between the transmitter and receiver beams. In this paper, we develop a tractable closed-form statistical channel model for point-to-point OISLs subject to independent pointing errors at both terminals. Accurate Gaussian main-lobe approximations are applied to the transmitter far-field pattern and receiver coupling efficiency. This transforms the diffraction-based channel response into closed-form expressions for the channel-gain distribution, outage probability, and ergodic capacity. The analytical results are validated through Monte Carlo simulations and used to study the impact of terminal stability, beam divergence, and link margin on OISL performance. The results show that outage probability is governed by the weaker terminal in terms of pointing stability, while improving only the stronger terminal provides minimal additional benefit. In contrast, the ergodic-capacity penalty depends on the combined stability of both terminals, revealing a fundamental distinction between reliability and throughput metrics. The proposed framework provides practical design guidelines for selecting beam parameters and specifying pointing and tracking requirements under varying levels of platform instability.
ER -