Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Last-mile connections go wireless

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 02 May 2004 06:20:55 -0400

Last-mile connections go wireless

By BRAD GRIMES
04/19/04

Technologies bring
fiber speeds to government buildings

High-speed fiber-optic lines pass within one mile of an estimated
75 percent of the nation's commercial and government buildings.
However, less than 10 percent of those buildings have fiber
connections and, depending on whose research you look at, that
figure could be as low as 3 percent.

Much of that fiber went into the ground when the telecommunications
industry was flying high in the 1990s. But when the bubble burst,
industry hit the brakes and demand for fiber connections slowed.

So today, instead of enjoying wide area network connections that
operate at speeds of more than a gigabit per second, most
organizations are settling for speeds in the megabit-per-second
range. And as more bandwidth-intensive applications are adopted,
including converged data, voice and video, business as usual isn't
good enough.

Laying fiber to complete the connection can be a costly, time-
consuming process. So technology companies have come up with
alternate ways to deliver fiber-caliber speeds for so-called "last-mile"

connectivity, without the need for fiber cables.

Companies such as Lake Success, N.Y.-based Canon U.S.A. Inc.
and Redmond, Wash.-based Terabeam Corp. build free-space optics
systems, which establish point-to-point connections over a beam of
light. A third company, Chantilly, Va.-based GigaBeam Corp., has
developed similar point-to-point technology, only it uses ultra high-
frequency radio waves.

According to experts, these solutions are a quick, easy way for
government agencies and their network integrators to establish
fiber-speed connections to and between government buildings.
But they also agree that such technologies may find more
acceptance as niche solutions than as long-term, last-mile
substitutes for fiber.

"If we look down the road five years, we'll be swimming in
bandwidth," said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications
analyst in Atlanta. "But what do we do for the next few years?"

BEHIND THE TECHNOLOGIES

When the World Trade Center buildings collapsed Sept. 11, 2001,
the New York State Unified Court System lost a T1 connection to
the Verizon central office in downtown Manhattan. Court buildings
were without voice and data services. But a fiber link to one location
remained up and running. The question became how to extend that
connectivity to other court buildings.

Hseng Guo, chief technical officer for the court system, said he did
some quick research and made a call to Canon requesting a pair of
the company's Canobeam free-space optics lasers. "We needed to
find the quickest way to get those buildings running again," he said.

(See http://www.usa.canon.com/html/industrial_canobeam/canobeam/)

Today the New York court system has deployed Canobeam technology
throughout the state.

"In many cases, doing fiber is cost-prohibitive," Guo said. "In
Manhattan
especially, there are landmark buildings to get around, and it can be
hard to get the permits to dig up streets and lay fiber."

Guo said it costs him about $40,000 to install a Canobeam connection.
Running 1,000 feet of fiber could cost up to $100,000.

Free-space optics, such as Canobeam, isn't a new technology.
According to Gordon Tubbs, assistant director of Canon's broadcast
and communications division, the company has been working on it for
15 years. It wasn't until technology advances brought the cost down --
from $50,000 in 1999 to as little as $13,000 today -- that Canon's free-

space optics products gained traction. Integrators, such as Lockheed
Martin Corp., and government agencies, such as the Labor Department,
use Canobeam technology, Tubbs said.

In a free-space optics solution, data travels between two devices
roughly the size of large shoeboxes. The devices are mounted on
buildings, aimed at one another and connected to their respective
wired networks, typically via 100Base-T or fiber cables. The
point-to-point connections can be made between buildings, or between
a building and a fiber point of presence.

"It's ideal for campus connectivity at government agencies or military
bases," said Jim Olson, vice president of carrier and federal sales at
Terabeam, whose customers include the Homeland Security Department.

(See http://www.terabeam.com/home.shtml)

The devices emit a narrow beam of light over which data travels.
Today's technology can establish connections at distances of more
than a mile, but the farther the light travels, the lower the
transmission
speed.

According to Olson, Terabeam's Elliptica series can send data nearly
2.5 miles at speeds up to 155 Mbps. The typical T1 line runs at only
1.5 Mbps. In comparison, the Canobeam CT-130 is rated at up to
1.25 Gbps, but only at distances of roughly half a mile.

Both companies offer different flavors of their free-space optics
technology, to fit an agency's bandwidth and distance needs.

As an alternative to free-space optics, GigaBeam has developed products
that use ultrahigh radio frequencies -- in the 71- to 76 GHz and 81- to
86
GHz spectrums -- to establish connections of more than a mile. Last
October,
the Federal Communications Commission authorized commercial licensing
rules for this high-frequency spectrum, paving the way for technologies
such as GigaBeam's.

Lou Slaughter, GigaBeam's chief executive officer, said the products
will begin shipping in July and run at speeds up to 2.4 Gbps.

(See http://www.gigabeam.com/)

"It's as fast as fiber, as reliable as fiber, but way inexpensive
compared
to fiber," Slaughter said. Pricing hasn't been determined.

In addition, GigaBeam technology can be adapted to meet future bandwidth

needs.

"This technology can scale," said Frank Dzubeck, president of
Communications Network Architects Inc., a Washington-based
telecommunications analysis firm. "You don't just build something
to do a gigabit. This can scale to 10 gigabits. At this spectrum,
you can have higher and higher bandwidths."

Beside its free-space optics product, Terabeam also sells a radio-based
solution. Its Gigalink series uses millimeter wavelength technology and
operates in the 60 GHz spectrum. It can run at up to 1 Gbps.

CAN'T STAND THE RAIN

Slaughter said GigaBeam's products would incorporate technology that
ensures "five 9s" of availability, meaning the connection operates
99.999
percent of the time, even under adverse atmospheric conditions.

But if there's one major hurdle that Canon, Terabeam and GigaBeam
must overcome, it's the perception that wireless connections, even over
powerful, narrow beams, are less reliable than fiber cables.

In the New York court system, Hseng Guo said fiber is his agency's
preferred means of network connectivity. Where that's not feasible,
he will turn to free-space optics, despite atmospheric limitations.

"One winter we had very heavy snow, and that degraded the signal,"
he said.

In general, free-space optics can be affected by fog; radio frequency
technology is susceptible to rain. Such conditions should factor into
the decision to deploy either solution. According to Olson, Washington
tends to be a good city for free-space optics.

Analysts said both technologies are, in fact, extremely reliable, but
acknowledged that they'll probably see adoption under special
circumstances rather than as primary connections to a fiber backbone.

"These technologies can serve as backup connections," Dzubeck said,
"or as a temporary primary connection when networks need to be
brought up and taken down quickly, like at a Super Bowl."

Canon's Tubbs said customers have bought Canobeam technology
to run alongside a T1 line, although in such situations, he said, the
T1 line normally acts as the redundant connection, while the much
faster Canobeam provides the primary connectivity.

The most popular use of free-space optics and ultra high-frequency
wireless solutions is likely to be building-to-building networking,
especially on campuses and in urban locations where streets, rail lines,

waterways and other impediments make it difficult to lay fiber
between an organization's buildings.

But analysts are quick to point out that fiber remains a viable option
for agencies that have the time and resources to deploy it. Carriers
and equipment providers have rallied around a "fiber to the premises"
initiative to spur fiber adoption.

In February, the District of Columbia announced it would build its own
fiber-optic network to connect more than 300 sites to a high-speed
backbone. The city chose networking equipment from San Jose,
Calif.-based Cisco Systems Inc. for its optical services.

"Our customers, the service providers, are running fiber as quickly as
they can," said Scott Messenger, director of marketing and product
management for Cisco's optical networking group. "In the short-term,
it's going to be a challenge in densely populated areas where fiber is
not cost effective ... but fiber is definitely the technology that most
people are comfortable with."

But until fiber reaches more customers, the alternatives will continue
to gain ground, experts said.

Staff Writer Brad Grimes can be reached at bgrimes @
postnewsweektech.com.

http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/19_2/emerging-tech/23327-1.html

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