LFAA AAVS1 fibre deployment

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The Local Infrastructure work package (LINFRA, lead: ICRAR/Curtin) of the SKA Low Frequency Aperture Array (LFAA) has been making impressive progress. This daily image reports on the deployment of the fiberoptic cable installation.

As the AAVS1 system will use RF over Fibre (RFoF) technology, we need to make sure that the antennas are connected via a stable fibre link to the digitisers in the Central Processing Facility (CPF) on the MRO site (which also holds the ASKAP and MWA processing racks)

As can be seen on the pictures, the large drum of cable has arrived at the MRO and has been deployed to the four AAVS1 stations.

On end of the fibre optic cable will be connected to the Antenna Power and Interface Unit (APIU), situated in the centre of each station.

A separate, 25 meter, fibre optic cable will connect the antennas to the APIU, within each station.

The other end will be connected to the RFoF receiver modules, mounted at the digitisers boards, located at the CPF.