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Technology Stocks : TeraBeam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (199)	9/17/2000 6:45:32 PM
From: Bernard Levy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 227

The latest news piece on Terabeam: mercurycenter.com

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (199)	10/1/2000 1:39:36 AM
From: signist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 227

Wireless Lasers Come Into Focus -- IT managers have long known its potential as a LAN and last mile transmission technique FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2000 11:56 PM - CMP Media Sep. 29, 2000 (InternetWeek - CMP via COMTEX) -- For years, enterprises have toyed with the idea of using laser signals to connect buildings on their campuses or to link up to carrier networks. The technology was acknowledged to be fast, but has never caught on because of technical shortcomings and the perception that using lasers in the atmosphere was unsafe. Enterprise managers should be prepared for a new push for this technology, though it will be called "free space optics" as vendors distance themselves from the word "laser." Generally, the lasers and the receivers sit atop buildings. These devices are connected to the LAN equipment by fiber fed through the buildings' risers. Interface devices feed the signals into the campus LAN. Until recently, there was very little margin for error in focusing the rooftop laser and receiver pairs. Extreme temperatures and the buildings' natural sway threw things out of kilter and brought networks down. This was solved by using mul-tiple lasers and designing them with an increased field of view. This increased the systems' margin of error. The remaining problem that Optical Access and other vendors are tackling now is one of perception, at least in their view. Laser signals, many people believe, easily disperse in fog, making it inappropriate for mission-critical applications. While it is true that fog can potentially disperse signals, simple design precautions avoid any real-world problem, said Jonathan Amir, vice president of marketing at Optical Access. Using data from the U.S. Weather Service, Optical Access adjusts the distance between laser transmitters and receivers in the enterprise networks they build. This compensates for potential dispersion, Amir said. For instance, the distance between sites in Reno, Nev.-which is not prone to fog-could be as great as four kilometers, while the spacing in New York City would be less than one kilometer to ensure that signals are not lost due to weather conditions. Such measures may not be enough to win over finicky IT managers. Such concerns, therefore, led Optical Access, last month, to introduce an optional automatic radio frequency (RF) backup system and redundant mesh architecture. The optional RF transmitters and receivers can be programmed to begin transmitting when the primary laser connection fails. Alternatively, they can be programmed to run in parallel with the laser signal, ready for automatic switchover if the primary signal degrades. Lasers transmit in the unlicensed infrared band, while the RF subsystem transmits at 10 Mbps in the 5.8 gigahertz, which is also unlicensed. The primary signal can traffic data at OC-3, OC-12 and, soon, OC-48 rates. The RF backup adds 15 percent to 25 percent to a system's cost. The mesh adds another layer of certainty, Amir said. Using this approach, all transmitters send signals to two receivers. This adds a layer of redundancy to the traditional point-to-point approach. Laser networking offers far higher speeds than T1s at a far lower cost, Amir said. A single T1 can go for about $1,500 per month while an equivalent Optical Access laser transmitter/receiver link costs a one-time charge of about $20,000 per link. This makes the payback slightly more than a year and, coupled with the high speeds, makes the system compelling, Amir contends. Speed is another issue that will help laser technology take hold, Amir thinks. While the wireline industry is just getting comfortable with OC-3 transmission speeds, Optical Access will roll out OC-12 service before the end of this year and OC-48 during the first quarter of next year.