Antenna Remoting – CDL

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Antenna Remoting – CDL

Antenna Remoting over fiber enables greater flexibility to locate an antenna away from a radio head.  Coax cables or Waveguides have significant RF losses and are cumbersome to install.  RF over Fiber enables “virtual cable” installation over flexible, small diameter, easily deployed and installed fiber.  Such an Antenna Remoting solution was deployed, tested, and validated by the US Navy

The Common Data Link (CDL) is a secure communications protocol, established by the U.S. Department of Defense, for transporting signals intelligence and imagery. CDL supports data rates up to 274 Mbits/s and operates between sites (e.g., airborne, shipboard, ground, satellite) in the Ku-band. In many cases, it is not feasible to upconvert/downconvert the Ku-band signals at an antenna. Optical Zonu’s CDL fiberoptic transport links solve the problem and meet the requirement of transporting Ku-band RF signals over much longer distances than can be supported by copper. Optical Zonu CDL deployments include lightweight antenna remoting kits for tactical deployment in flexible arenas such as the battlefield of the future. Optical Zonu CDL links also support Ku-band connectivity between remote antenna radome high above the decks of ships and Satcom modems deep within fighting ships. Optical Zonu CDL fiberoptic links meet and exceed all of the following CDL requirements.

  • Optimization for 14.4 – 14.83 GHz downlinks and 15.15 – 15.35 GHz uplinks
  • Low loss transport, 0.7 dB/km over a single fiber
  • Support all CDL compliant waveforms
  • Symmetric/asymmetric data rates
  • 10/100/1000 base-T Ethernet datalink
  • Audio/video transport
  • Flexible cable routing between antenna and modems

Antenna Remoting solutions from Optical Zonu offer the following advantages.

  • Transport of any L-, C-, X-, Ku-, K-, Ka-, Q-, and V-band RF signals over fiber
  • Bi-directional RF signal transport from 10 kHz to 60 GHz
  • Low transport attenuation loss – fiber (0.7 dB/km), RG 0.25” coaxial cable (1.2 dB/meter at 15 GHz)
  • Highly linear operation, SFDR > 110 dB-Hz
  • OZC patented fast fiber fault finding technology to guarantee fiber integrity and locate defects
  • SNMP v3 management and control interface
  • OZC web graphical user interface and embedded NMS application
  • As optical fiber does not radiate RF, signal detection and interception are greatly reduced
  • Optical fiber is immune to virtually all types of interference (including lightning)
  • Optical fiber will not conduct electricity or create ground loops
  • There is no possibility of a spark from a broken fiber, therefore no electrical shock or fire hazard
  • As fiber is glass, it is unaffected by most corrosive chemicals and moisture
  • Fiber is lightweight and flexible, cable and waveguide are heavy and bulky

The figure below identifies the typical basic equipment included in a CDL over fiber deployment architecture.