In Broadcast - CABSAT 2015 - 29
29 www.inbroadcast.com | CABSAT InShow Guide | 10-12 March 2015 Fibre Inter-Facility Links Future-Proof Satellite Ground Station Networks ETL Systems' RF over Fibre range will continue to grow as it looks forward to meeting the challenge of the industry's RF needs... By Esen Bayar, CTO W ith the development of high throughput satellites which operate over Ku and Ka band frequencies, and requirements for increased bandwidth, the need for teleport operators to upgrade their ground stations' inter-facility links (IFLs) has grown. The transmission of RF signals from a remote satellite dish farm to broadcaster's headends, uplink and downlink applications, and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services, are traditionally handled by copper coaxial cables, but as teleports grow, this option is no longer suitable. Copper coax cables have several shortcomings; they are bulky and have restricted bandwidth, with an increase in loss to the signal quality which limits the distance they can transmit RF signals over. Weather conditions also have an impact on signal continuity as coax cable is a great conductor of lightening. This adds to the risk of signal loss and expensive downtime. Here at ETL Systems, we are in the middle of a ground up redesign of RF over fibre, and have recently launched a new range of ultra compact, high resilience shelves - the StingRay series. Transmitting signals over fibre eliminates all the shortcomings of coax cable, by delivering high quality RF signals across a long distance with minimal loss. It is reliable, having fewer problems with lightning strikes compared to copper. Designing room can benefit from StingRay's fibre links in which to teleport remote control and monitoring infrastructures also provides a cost features, with Simple Network saving compared to copper cable. Management Protocol (SNMP) and a It is smaller in size, and has lower web browser interface available as operating, administration, and standard. maintenance costs. Over the past year, ETL Systems has The exponential growth in teleport launched solutions for both indoor and size and bandwidth demand makes outdoor applications. The new outdoor fibre the perfect solution, as it has enclosure (ODU), can withstand wide a much higher information carrying environmental conditions, and is capacity, with wavelength division designed to be pole or wall mounted, multiplexing, to place many feeds on a close to a remote antenna. single fibre. StingRay IFLs transmit and A comprehensive range of compact receive an entire L-band or broadband and reliable chassis and fibre modules, polarisation over single mode fibre, which are inter-operable between from satellite antennas to reception chassis, with a variety of features for equipment, up to 10 km away. different applications, is offered. With StingRay modules, signal quality The StingRay Fibre range will be and RF performance is preserved; such showcased at CABSAT 2015. as high isolation between modules and low IMD3, ensuring maximum efficiency in spectrum usage. Unmanned teleports which are managed Resilience built in with hot-swap fibre modules in ETL's StingRay RF over Fibre units from a single control
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