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
http://www.inbroadcast.com http://www.etlsystems.com/categories/349-fibre-optic-link-ifl http://www.etlsystems.com
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