Optical Zonu’s Iridium over fiber solution is designed for applications requiring satellite communications where a clear line-of-sight to the Iridium satellite constellation is not available. Outdoor antennas are connected to indoor or underground satellite phone locations via fiber. Indoor equipment may be located up to 1 km away from Iridium line-of-sight antennas.

The Optical Zonu Iridium fiber transport subsystems are transparent to any Iridium certified communication equipment. If an Iridium phone/cradle connects directly to outdoor antennas over coaxial cable, they will connect transparently using the Optical Zonu fiber distribution system. As with any Iridium certified equipment, the Optical Zonu fiber transport subsystem also supports both voice and data services. GNSS/GPS may also be supported on the downlink (contact Optical Zonu).

The Iridium over-the-air link protocol is TDD. Uplink and downlink carrier frequencies are the same, hence communication is achieved by dividing the single frequency channel into timeslots. The Optical Zonu architecture maintains sufficient Eb/N0 (i.e., bit error rate) and the uplink and (more critically) on the downlink by physically separating the uplink and downlink antenna/paths. This provides the necessary isolation between uplink and downlink. With the Optical Zonu implementation of separated antennas, the uplink transmitted power may be fully 10W without interfering with the downlink.

Fiber transmitters feature linear uncooled isolated DFB laser diodes. Receivers feature high performance InGaAs photodiodes. The standard RF interface to the indoor 19” 1RU chassis is 50Ω SMA. The 19” chassis is powered by dual AC or –48 VDC (optional) power supplies. Outdoor equipment as well as the indoor ceiling mount re-radiating termination are powered from +12 VDC.

Locally, status LEDs are present on both the front and the back of the 19” 1RU indoor chassis. Alarm and monitor functions are also available via dry relay contacts accessed by means of a DB25 connector on the back of the chassis