Solar and Battery Powered RF Over Fiber Deployments

One of the main RF Over Fiber applications is signal backhaul from a remote antenna to a central location, typically, a data center. Tx (Transmit) module which takes in the RF signal and converts it into an optical signal is placed by the antenna. The Rx module at the central location takes in that optical signal and converts it back to RF signal. Typically, there would be a power source at the antenna location that can be used to power up the RFoF module(s). However, there are some instances there may not be an AC or DC power source at the antenna location. Some of our customers who have found themselves in this situation, have developed solutions to power up the RFoF modules using a combination of solar power and battery backup. Here are some samples pictures from such a deployment. Battery powered RFoF deployments can also be found in EMI labs and anechoic chambers where the RFoF and battery is placed in an EMI shielded enclosure since a power cord will affect the measurements. RFOptic’s RFoF modules are very energy efficient and do not require cooling. For example, the RFoF Tx modules that support up to 6 GHz consume 1.3 Watt (260 milliamps at +5 VDC). If the 30 dB internal LNA is turned on, the power consumption increases to 2 Watt. The Rx RFoF modules up to 6 GHz draw 225 mA at +5 VDC. For detailed specs:

https://rfoptic.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/RFoF-2.5GHz-Oct2021-1.pdf