The FOI-2482 and FOI-2832 both provide complete electrical isolation for asynchronous RS-422 communications. The units are transparent to all handshaking protocols and can accept data and clock signals up to a maximum rate of 6.144 Mbps. The units have two fiber optic channels with each channel being an independent signal path for uni-directional DCE to DTE communications. The clock must be provided by the DCE.

The units can be used in areas of high electrical noise or in and out of RF shielded enclosures. The fiber optic cable is not susceptible to interference caused by impulse noise, crosstalk, or EMI. Privacy of communications is also enhanced because the fiber optic cable does not radiate any emissions.

In addition, fiber optic cable offers much longer transmission distances than traditional RS-422 cabling. Multimode optics on the units can extend the distance to 2km. A typical link consists of an FOI-2832 at the Data Communication Equipment (DCE) and an FOI-2482 at the Data Terminal Equipment (DTE) with two fiber optic cables between them.