Laser radio technology a cheaper alternative to fiber optic cables?

Fiber optic cable networks are expensive to install—often prohibitively so in sparsely populated rural areas such as where I live. About 15 years ago, we had high hopes when the provincial telco utility ran a fiber optics line within sight of my office window, albeit about a mile distant and across a lake. They even ran a spur off the main trunk to a pole alongside the local switching station about half a mile from my house.

And there, a coil of fiber optic cable remained hanging from the utility pole for the next decade. When I queried a friend who worked for the telco as to when we might get hard wired high speed Internet here, he advised me not to hold my breath. Apparently, going fiber would mean replacing the switching station at an estimated cost just shy of Can$200,000, and for a community with a population of about 30 people for 10 months of the year, a business case for the upgrade couldn’t be made, so we remain on an antiquated copper telephone network to this day. Eventually another company brought wireless high speed (sort of) Internet here, and last spring I switched to a satellite ISP, which likewise isn’t nearly as fast as a fiber-op service, but has proved more reliable than the wireless service had.

However, while fiber optic cables are definitely the ideal method of Internet transmission for high volume data where the facilitating economies of scale obtain, another, more economical alternative called Laser-Radio Technology (LRT) combines an advanced form of Free Space Optics with Millimeter Wave Radio Frequency (RF) technology in a way not previously thought possible.

Using proprietary algorithms to composite raw data from both frequencies, the output of the two technologies are combined at the byte level to yield an error-free signal and system performance that is greater than the sum of its parts. You can find out more at www.aoptix.com.

Laser-radio technology by AOptix was originally designed for and used within the US military, and is claimed by advocates to be the only wireless technology in existence today that has the availability and reliability to serve as a true “dark fiber” alternative. Much cheaper than a fiber optic cable network, Laser-radio technology uses a combination of laser and radio to bring the Internet anywhere. Because it uses this combination, transmission is ensured in any type of weather condition. Lasers don’t work in foggy weather, while radio waves are affected by rain; the use of both offers added redundancy as opposed to fiber optic cables which are easily affected by weather.

Wireless technology by definition uses air as its transmission medium, opening the potential for any type of inclement weather to impact the data signal. All traditional wireless technologies have inherent weaknesses based on the electromagnetic spectrum wavelength that they used—for example, light-based FSO is negatively impacted by fog, while radio-based Millimeter Wave frequencies are susceptible to rain fade. AOptix notes that a technology companies in the past have attempted to solve these various weaknesses, but its Laser Radio Technology has finally succeeded.

Armed with patented technologies, and through years of product development and field validation work with the US military, AOptix engineers determined that the only way to overcome the fundamental challenges of wireless transmission was to take a completely disruptive approach. AOptix’s breakthrough innovation was integration of multiple diverse technologies in three key capabilities:

1. Leverage the power of Adaptive Optics to improve traditional Free Space Optics through the creation of Real-Time Atmospheric Correction (RTAC) technology.
2. Create a tightly-steered version of traditional Millimeter Wave through the precise application of Active Beam Steering (ABS) technology.
3. Combine the two resulting wireless data transmission signals at the byte level using Advanced Wavelength Diversity (AWD) technology to generate an error-free wireless signal that can withstand fog, rain, high winds, snow, and other extreme weather.

Laser Radio Technology is the result of these three merged technological innovations, delivering carrier-grade availability up to 10 kilometers in all weathers.

While the solution is far from perfected—mainly due to low data transmission speed (two gigabits per second)—AOptix believes laser-radio technology can be the future of the Internet due to cost efficiency and convenience of implementation. They say laser-radio technology is currently being tested by three US mobile carriers, with Nigeria and Mexico on their way.

Source: www.aoptix.com.