100 km RF over Fiber Link – Potential Game Changer for Teleports

ViaLite is pleased to announce a 100 km RF over fiber link.

“Customers have been asking us for longer link distances” says Dr. Martin Ryan, CEO of ViaLite Communications.

Very long link distances open up new possibilities for teleport design and this kind of capability is a potential game-changer.  We are discussing a variety of applications with satcom customers such as permanent dark-fiber links between teleports and borrowing feeds from other teleports during periods of maintenance.”

Traffic and data links between unmanned teleports

Because ViaLiteHD can be controlled remotely using SNMP or Ethernet this opens up additional possibilities such as multiple, unmanned teleport sites being managed from a single control room. The 100 km link also supports DWDM, which means up to 96 signals can be sent down a single fiber, massively reducing the fiber count.  This means that the leasing costs of dark fiber are minimized. ViaLiteHD links also support the multiplexing of timing or reference signals together with traffic.

Fiber is now the de-facto choice

“We have been manufacturing these links for twenty years.  RF over fiber is becoming the de-facto choice for inter-facility links (IFLs) because teleports are getting larger and copper coax is no longer suitable.  The electrical signal is transferred to the optical domain without any modulation so the link is completely transparent to the system and supports any signal format.  Customers can therefore install RF over fiber links knowing they are future-proof.  Fiber losses are so low that even our standard links support up to 10 km.

RF over dark fiber in live broadcasts

With long link distances and DWDM, it is now commercially and technically viable for teleports to use dark fiber.   ViaLite customers are already providing live services to major broadcasters over leased fiber.  DWDM means up to 96 links can share a single fiber and using more than one fiber loop allows full redundancy.  Link gain can be automatically or manually adjusted so the fiber loops appear identical in the system, even if they are radically different lengths.”