A software-defined receiver for laser communications using a GPU

Laser commiunication systems provide a high data rate, power efficient communication solution for small satellites and deep space missions. One challenge that limits the widespread use of laser communication systems is the lack of accessible, low-complexity receiver electronics and software implementations. Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) can reduce the complexity in receiver design since GPUs require less specialized knowledge and can enable faster development times than Field Programmnable Cate Array (FPGA) implementations, while still retaining comparable data throughputs via parallelization. This thesis explores the use of a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) as the sole computational unit for the signal processing algorithms involved in laser conmnunications.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Kusters, Joseph Matthew.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kerri L. Cahoy.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/121598

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/121598