Free Space Optics - Ready for Prime Time?

Free Space Optics, the technology that overlaps the optical and wireless categories, has long been under development yet it has not achieved acceptance as a standard access option for providers. FSO vendors have done a good job emphasizing the technology's advantages of being cost-effective and easy to deploy, but they have had difficulty convincing service providers of the technology's viability and marketability. In early market trials, weather and other obstacles resulted in not-so-great signal availability, and providers quickly categorized FSO as more of a "back-up" solution or one that only works well in a campus environment. The nail in the coffin right? Wrong-throw out any skepticism and preconceptions you may have about FSO viability.

Deployment of FSO networks has picked up recently, although much faster outside the U.S. Vendors see many more requests for information coming from carriers rather than enterprise customers (the reverse trend of a year ago). The growth can be attributed to increased sales efforts abroad but is also due to vendors breaking out of the "pigeonhole" by addressing the two biggest misconceptions from carriers:

1. Isn't Free Space Optics a solution just for fiber replacement?

Although often characterized as a fiber replacement in a campus environment, vendors are marketing and testing FSO in new and varied applications in which FSO complements fiber. These applications include metro network extension, dense wave division multiplexing services, SONET ring closures, wireless backhaul, disaster recovery, and storage-area network and LAN interconnectivity.

2. How can a highly available service be offered and service-level agreements (SLA) guaranteed?

Back to the signal availability dilemma. Recently, vendors have developed some nifty modeling tools that calculate how reliable a link will be, factoring in variables such as distance, bandwidth desired, equipment type specified and geographic location. For example, LightPointe's Flight Navigator software uses atmospheric data and some complex physics to accurately determine a link's chance of failure. Future versions of the tool will be more involved, including things like the type of glass the laser will pass through in in-building installations. Using tools like this, more accurate SLAs can be established quickly and effectively.

Other vendors, such as fSONA, have worked hard to compile and publish data to show that those old concerns are just that-outdated given current solutions. FSOs also offer lower deployment costs and reduced installation time compared with metro fiber builds. Business cases we have seen start at one-fifth the cost of metro fiber and can be six months faster to install in some metro areas. With the technology's applications expanded and its performance rising, it may be time to revisit FSO and consider adding it to your toolbox.

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Briere is CEO and Bracco is President of TeleChoice, the strategic catalyst for the telecom industry. They can be reached at telecomcatalyst@telechoice.com.