Optical Fiber to the TestBed

K. Hanson

Why?

• Bandwidth – SM optical fiber will have 100x that of DSL solution– MM still 10-20x at 2 km.– We may not need/want this for the test bed in continuous

mode but when I ask people what have been shortcomings of AURA system, ability to transfer data back to analyzer has ranked top among complaints.

– Could be useful if we want to put other stuff out there: transient detector isolated from TestBed.

• Versatility – can also deliver fast– Clocks– Synchronization signals

Why not?

• Cost – fiber is expensive O(10k) for cable + equipment cf O(1k) for DSL equipment

• Extra cables – still need copper for power• Extra labor associated with integration• Danger of EMI though I believe that DSL drives

lines pretty hard so I’d think there would be less danger of radiating cables or EMI coming off of the line driver.

How to hack in a fiber

TestBedShielded CAT5

+/- 10 m

FO Media Converter

ICL

Fiber: ± 2.5 km

I don’t know what the endpoint at the TestBed looks like. I imagine the ability to plug in a more or less standard network cable supporting ethernet. This could go for some 10’s of meters to the media converter to keep the potentially noisy device at distance.

Optical Network Receiver

SM or MM about same price – multiple strands where N >= 6 is reasonable: you don’t end up paying that much extra for extra fibers in the cable.

Planning

• If there is interest I would contribute the fiber and equipment to make this work.