Tackling the Last Mile
feer.com
Laser networks could offer broadband-strapped companies in Asia a shot at high-speed Internet access
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By Charles Bickers/HONG KONG
Issue cover-dated December 21, 2000
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INTERNET BY LASER is coming to an office near you. Instead of waiting for the local telecoms company to get around to wiring your building for broadband, new technology should make it possible for a telecoms or Internet service provider to give its customers high-speed data and Internet access through a beam of light.
Using a network of connectors beaming information to each other with safe, invisible lasers, telecoms companies may soon be delivering data at incredibly high speeds to a customer's rooftop, or even in through the office window. Since each laser link only works over a few hundred metres, it's best used in crowded cities or industrial zones where the signals can be passed from building to building, eventually reaching a building connected to a high-speed land-link to the Internet.
Asia's megacities, starved of telecoms capacity and choice, could be a perfect proving ground for the data-rich beams. "Asian cities often have a high density of buildings, but few companies in them are connected to fast data communications," says Jon Gallagher, senior product manager for Airfiber, a U.S. wireless optical-equipment manufacturer. "That may be because the fibre hasn't been laid yet or because the owner of the fibre has a monopoly and is charging too much. What we're offering is near fibre-optic data speeds, without the costs or the fibres." Potential customers are companies in buildings too small to draw investment from the telecoms companies to lay new fibre, says Gallagher.
The laser networks, known as optical wireless networks, are the latest solution to what's known in the telecoms world as the "last-mile" problem: Fast Internet and data services reach a city's central switch office, but in many cases, customers can't find a way to bridge the "last mile" of high speed between their own internal computer networks and the Internet backbone that starts at the switch office. Since Internet access and data transmission work only as well as the weakest, or slowest, link, all communication outside the office usually slows to the speed of the "last-mile" link.
"It's like putting a straw between two water mains," says Lou Gellos, senior communications manager at U.S. optical-network company Terabeam Networks.
Some companies already offer alternative high-speed links using radio signals--called fixed wireless--but it's expensive and can be difficult to license and administer. Others are using cable-TV networks or sending new digital signals over existing telephone wires. (In Asia, DSL digital subscriber lines are popular.) But both are still slow for corporate needs compared with fibre-optic speed. Wireless optical, while by no means a cure-all, could give corporate customers an affordable--and easy--option in urban areas.
ROOFTOP BEAMS
Airfiber's Optimesh system, which has completed two major trials--one in Tokyo with Japan's second-largest telecoms carrier, DDI Corp., known as KDDI--will be on sale to telecoms operators early next year. Optimesh comprises a network of rooftop laser "nodes"--which essentially look like silver traffic lights atop a pole--beaming information between each other around the city and ultimately to a national "backbone network." Airfiber's system also allows old-style voice telephone calls, too. Customers route a wire from their office up to the node on the roof to connect to the Optimesh system.
Airfiber's current product offers connection speeds of 622 megabytes per seconds--or 622 million pieces of digital information every second. That's around 400 times faster than a traditional corporate network connection, and between 10 and 60 times faster than a wireless radio connection.
The fact that the nodes bounce signals around in a network is important to deal with optical networking's major drawback--range. Each laser beam will only travel between 100 and 500 metres, depending on the prevailing local weather, so passing beams from building to building is the only way to extend reach.
Each rooftop node can be installed by a telecoms operator for around $30,000, which is significantly less than a wireless radio system, and can serve all of the building's occupants. Airfiber is signing up telecoms providers now, and hopes to see commercial services available in March 2001.
Seattle-based Terabeam Networks is rolling out an optical-wireless network in Seattle now, and will start servicing five major U.S. cities next year. But it doesn't expect to reach Asia for at least another year.
Terabeam's approach is different to Airfiber in many respects. Terabeam not only builds its equipment but intends to run its own networks and Internet Service Provider business, much like a regular telecoms carrier, whereas Airfiber is merely selling equipment to telecoms operators.
Essentially, so long as customers can see one of Terabeam's nodes from a window, they can use the connection equipment--"much like a photocopier," says Terabeam's Gellos--and have instant access to the Internet through a home satellite-sized receiver dish in the window.
"The window's important, because then you don't have problems with roof rights," says Kerry Nisco-Hicks, vice-president of international business development for Terabeam. Many landlords currently charge telecoms companies to set up equipment on the roof of their premises and then to route cables from the roof down to their customer floors. Airfiber acknowledges the issue, but says it believes landlords will see the benefit of a new system that offers potential occupants superfast data connections, and hence perhaps premium rents.
Nisco-Hicks says Terabeam won't offer services in Asia until 2002. "We have to prove ourselves" in the U.S. first, she says. The company hopes to build a "showcase" network in one Asian city over the next two years. Most likely Terabeam will seek a local partner in each Asian market.
But the biggest sales problem for optical networks is convincing telecoms carriers and corporate customers that the technology is safe and reliable. Both companies stress that they use invisible laser wavelengths that are safe for humans and animals. No pigeons will be frying in mid-air, Gallagher assures potential customers.
ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS
Wayward pigeons, however, form part of the other major hurdle of wireless-optical technology. Interruptions to the laser beam, either by blockage or misalignment of the beam, instantly cut a data connection. Asia's most crowded spots run the full gamut of laser hazards: earthquakes, tropical rainstorms, birds, bugs, hurricanes, fog, smog, snow and the general clutter of cities.
"Fibre-optics enclose the light in a safe, cosy and controlled environment," says Oliver Graydon, editor of Fibersystems International, a British-based journal on fibre-optic technology. "Take it outside and you have a lot of environmental issues that can mess with the light."
Gellos says minor or transient blockages to the beam--bugs, for example--are handled easily because not all the beam is disturbed. "Fog is our biggest issue, because the moisture droplets act as a prism, diffusing the light," says Gellos. "Otherwise building sway is important, because many of our customers will be in skyscrapers." Airfiber and Terabeam both employ automatic tracking to keep the laser beam between the receiver and node equipment aligned through building sway or minor tremors.
Both companies say back-up planning, such as connecting through phone lines or through two or more optical nodes, can ensure uninterrupted data and Internet flows in emergencies. Airfiber and Terabeam insist optical networks will be just as reliable as any other telecoms network.
After earthquakes, Tokyo's heaviest rainstorm of the year and the usual smoggy evenings, the KDDI trial still proved successful, says Airfiber's Gallagher.
"We did have one strange intermittent outage on our trial equipment in Tokyo. We switched on the camera and noticed someone doing chin-ups on the equipment." Otherwise the major modification to the equipment was to add a cone-shaped "hat" to its nodes to stop crows nesting.
Optical networking is far from being a well-proven technology. But for companies needing fast connections quickly, wireless-optical networks may soon offer an attractive option. "We're another tool in the shed," says Airfiber's Gallagher. "A very fast tool, mind you." |
