Hi Frank,
Lasers, Broadband Wireless Hookups Speed Data Around Lower Manhattan
By DENNIS K. BERMAN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Mike Brady doesn't know what to make of the two humming contraptions now peering through windows at Merrill Lynch & Co. offices near the Hudson River in New York City. "They look like searchlights on small refrigerators," jokes Mr. Brady, Merrill's first vice president for global network services.
In reality, the devices are a part of a system of invisible lasers transmitting data for over 2,000 people from two Merrill operations in lower Manhattan to backup offices in Jersey City, N.J., about 1.6 miles away and across the Hudson.
Three weeks ago it would have been unimaginable for Merrill to so quickly deploy the technology, called "free-space optics," without months of testing and fiddling. But with its own ring of traditional fiber-optic cables damaged in the destruction of the World Trade Center, it had little choice but to scramble for an alternative. Since Sept. 11, says Mr. Brady, the fiber-optic lines buried beneath the pavement have failed five times. Now, when the fiber goes out, the lasers from Seattle's Terabeam Inc. kick in. (Merrill has a small investment in Terabeam, but hadn't before used its technology.)
petere |
