Antenna Remoting with Fiber Optic Links

Microwave Fiber Optic Antenna Remoting

Antenna assets for military and commercial satellite communications as well as radar applications must often be located at a distance from ground stations.  Redundancy requirements may dictate multiple antenna locations and arrays of antennas are often an architectural feature of advanced systems.  In military settings, deployed antenna assets, as potential targets, are remotely located to protect personnel.   Commercial cellular communications likewise may include system architectures where a single base station serves multiple cell sites. Satellite downlinks and GPS receivers also often require remote antenna locations.

Coaxial copper cables typically carry these high-frequency RF and microwave signals to the remote antenna locations.  Transmission over copper, however, is subject to signal degradation over distance and is susceptible to electromagnetic interference (EMI) and risks disturbance from lightning and EMP.  Cost can also be a factor for long terrestrial coaxial cable runs, and in airborne applications, the weight of copper to connect myriad antennas and subsystems on the aircraft can be a critical issue.

Microwave over Fiber

Optoelectronic technologies can provide a compelling alternative to coaxial copper signal transport in many applications. 

Today, RF and Microwave signals can be transported with high integrity over many kilometers using photonic transport.

Tactical RF Photonic Communications

Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Interfacility Link (IFL) products are available for single and bi-directional transport of signals up to 30 GHz.  Transceiver uplink and downlink signals are transported over mil-spec, multi-strand singlemode fiber optic cable.  As a non-metallic transport medium, optical cabling is inherently immune to lightning strikes, EMI and EMP disturbances.

Tactical radio, remote sensing and tactical radar applications benefit from increased separation distance between personnel and active emitting antennas.  Robust, high-bandwidth communications can be provided to forward locations with less risk to personnel.

Airborne Photonic Links

Airborne electronic warfare (EW) and electronic countermeasure (ECM) platforms can benefit greatly from the reduced weight and power requirements of photonic transport of antenna signals.  As  systems requirements increase and antenna requirements expand, the reduced weight of glass fiber signal transport has even greater impact on overall system weight reduction.  The advantage of reduced EMI and EMP susceptibility is also pronounced in avionics applications.

Linear Photonics Capabilities

Linear Photonics, LLC, of Hamilton, NJ, USA, designs and manufactures microwave fiber optic link components, modules and subsystems for applications in hybrid fiber-coax networks, high-reliability EW systems, satellite communications links and remote sensing systems. In addition to COTS products, custom requirements can be accommodated to meet specific needs. Linear Photonics core capabilities extend from component technologies (lasers and photoreceivers) to module and subsystem fabrication and test.

Linear Photonics offers various levels of product integration and deployment schemes to meet customer requirements.   Click on the links below to find technical specifications and application notes.