Patent ID: 7587141

Claim:
A free-space communication transceiver, comprising: a telescope configured to transmit and receive laser beams; a data laser transmitter module for generating a transmit laser beam modulated with data, the transmit laser beam having a transmit wavelength; an optical receiver module for processing a receive laser beam received from the telescope to recover data, the receive laser beam having a receive wavelength different from the transmit wavelength; a transmit/receive beamsplitter configured to direct the transmit laser beam from the data laser transmitter module to a common optical axis of the telescope and to direct the receive laser beam from the common optical axis to the optical receiver module such that the transmit and receive laser beams are collinear collimated free space beams along the common optical axis between the transmit/receive beamsplitter and the telescope; an RF transceiver configured to transmit and receive RF signals modulated with data; and an optical/RF beamsplitter configured to couple transmit and receive RF signals between the common optical axis and the RF transceiver, wherein the telescope is configured to transmit and receive RF signals.