Abstract: Telecommunication satellites must follow the advances of terrestrial network capacities and increase their total throughputs in order to remain competitive. This paper shows how the terrestrial fibre technology at 1550-nm wavelength can be extended to support an optical feeder link between ground and a GEO satellite. With 100 Gb/s in a single direction, an optical uplink would outperform the near-term Ka-band systems. Mitigation techniques against clouds and turbulence are described. The impact of satellite transparency on the optical transmission system is discussed. To increase the profitability of the optical solution, cost and link availability associated with various ground station networks should be carefully assessed
