Patent ID: 7609972

Claim:
A method for acquisition and tracking of laser communication terminals in a free-space laser communication system, comprising: (a) exchanging position information between laser communication terminals using RF signals; (b) acquiring the laser communication terminals by exchanging beacon laser beams between the laser communication terminals, the beacon laser beams being transmitted via a beacon aperture and received via a data aperture of the respective laser communication terminals, wherein, in each of the laser communication terminals, received beacon laser beams are supplied from the data aperture to a beacon receiver, the beacon laser beams being steered in accordance with the exchanged position information; (c) communicating between the laser communication terminals by exchanging data laser beams via the data apertures of the respective laser communication terminals; and (d) tracking the laser communication terminals by exchanging beacon laser beams between the laser communication terminals and steering the data laser beams based on feedback from the beacon laser beams, wherein the beacon laser beams have a greater beam divergence and a different wavelength than the data laser beams.