Considerations for Application of RF-over-Fiber to Navy Systems

The superior distance-bandwidth product of optical fiber communications has led to the development of a wide array of active and passive optical/optoelectronic components for the digital data communication industry. The cable television (CATV) industry has been the primary driver for development of high performance analog fiber optic links. RF-over-fiber offers advantages for military RF signal distribution, primarily antenna remoting, as such there is significant interest in leveraging the commercial developments noted above for these military applications. Because the link distances for many of these military applications are often so short that the RF performance is poorer than a design using copper coax or waveguide, the adoption of RF-over-fiber in deployed systems has been limited. This has motivated continuing development of link components and designs to improve link performance. This paper will summarize system-level metrics relevant to Navy antenna remoting applications, discuss an example deployed system, and conclude with an update on recent improvements in analog link components/performance.