Elec. Engineering/Physics/Computer Science Internship/Master Thesis Student (MAC Methods) (m/f/d)

The DLR Institute of Communications and Navigation is dedicated to mission-oriented research in selected areas of communications and navigation. Its work ranges from the theoretical foundations to the demonstration of new procedures and systems in a real environment and is embedded in DLR's Space, Aeronautics, Transport, Security and Digitalization programmes.

What to expect

Optical satellite links provide high and secure throughput between satellites, ground and air nodes. Coherent optical communication reduces optical satellite link size-weight and power (SWaP) requirements at the cost of hardware complexity when compared against non-coherent communication schemes. To reduce hardware complexity of the coherent optical receivers, parts of the receiver may be shifted into the digital domain using intradyne receivers. The shift in digital domain opens up new possibilities for signal processing at various OSI layers. This task aims to evaluate concepts for medium access control (MAC) for free-space point-to-multipoint optical links and understand their effect on optical waveform design. The MAC methods applied primarily include, but are not limited to, space division multiple access (SDMA) and time division multiple access (TDMA). For verification of the MAC methods, simulation using Python as well as an optical testbed are available to the student. The laboratory setup provided to the student consists of an FPGA evaluation board, which is connected to a host Linux computer via JTAG and UART. The host computer is remotely accessible via SSH.

Your tasks

• Perform state-of-the-art review for MAC methods for free-space optical links
• Simulate different combinations of MAC methods for free-space optical links
• Analyze simulation results and highlight effects on the optical waveform
• Select most critical changes to the optical waveform and demonstrate their effects in real-time on an FPGA

Your profile

• Good programming skills in Python
• Basic programming skills in VHDL
• Experience with Vivado, git, tcl, GitLab, CI/CD, Docker, Linux
• Hands-on experience with FPGAs
• Fundamentals of coherent optical transmitters/receivers
• Fundamentals of satellite communication
• Fundamentals in medium access control methods
• Good English knowledge
• Good problem-solving skills

We look forward to getting to know you!

If you have any questions about this position (Vacancy-ID 6838 ) please contact:

Dr. Juraj Poliak

Tel.: +49 (0)8153 28 1470