Source 2: Just Facts, Corning Incorporated, 1995 Sorce 3: The Essential Guide to Telecommunications, Annabel Zodd, 2002 Source 4 What Ever Happened to Broadband?, Erick Schonfeld, Business 2.0, October 2002 Source 5: The Essential Guide to Telecommunications, Annabel Zodd, 2002 Source 6: Can They Dig It?, Kate Gerwig, Teledotcom, March 2001

Today’s Emerging Synergistic Optical Wireless/Fiber Landscape

From rural farms to suburban hospital campuses to big city high-rise offices, high-speed network connections must be made available everywhere people live and work, if information age is to reach full realization. Although rural, suburban and metropolitan connections each have their own sets of challenges; metropolitan market is presenting greatest difficulty for true highbandwidth connectivity. Complete, efficient, and profitable networks to meet emerging customer needs cannot exist without creation of metro area connectivity using diverse medium and resources. While some may consider an all-fiber network ideal connectivity solution, medium’s high-bandwidth capacity comes at a high price that is not feasible everywhere. A number of compelling factors justify further integration of optical wireless solutions to complement fiber deployments to meet growing connectivity demands. Service providers that have invested significantly to build network fiber backbones now need communications traffic to fully utilize network upgrades and generate revenues to pay for such investments. Developing metro optical network deployments (substantial bandwidth upgrades) extends reach of metropolitan networks to network edge. This is same portion of network where regulation changes have encouraged telecommunications players to “race” to gain competitive advantage and deliver best value to customers

EVOLVING INFRASTRUCTURES Because metropolitan telecommunications network architectures—particularly those in United States and Western Europe—have evolved as a patchwork of technologies, communications data is often slowed by protocols translations to manage and direct high-bandwidth information through metro networks. In growing economies such as China, India and Latin America, growth in bandwidth demands presents a different challenge, due to relative lack of network infrastructure.

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANTAGES Optical wireless solutions and fiber are two optical technologies today that deliver high-speed optical bandwidth to meet market needs. Their integration offers several technological advantages. First, fiber optics and optical wireless solutions share several characteristics. Optical wireless solutions can use same optical transmission wavelengths as fiber optics (850nm or 1550 nm). Second, optical wireless solutions and fiber can utilize same system components such as lasers, receivers and amplifiers. Third, both fiber and optical wireless can transmit digital information using a range of protocols. Fourth—and critically important in meeting technological demands—optical wireless delivers bandwidth (up to 2.5Gbps) necessary to complement fiber networks.

STRONG BUSINESS MODEL The business advantages of optical wireless for network extensions include deployments at an average of one-fifth cost of fiber-optic cable and in one-tenth time. Optical wireless systems are a flexible investment that can be re-deployed to meet changing customer needs. Optical wireless and fiber also integrate seamlessly, and because optical wireless equipment is simple and easily installed, technology can bridge optical network gaps effectively with reduced CAPEX risk. Installing optical wireless solutions to complement fiber enables service providers to secure customers in a specific location first before installing system to bridge to fiber network, providing optimal alignment between capital expenditure and income.

Complementary Future The future of information economy depends on profitability. Despite large debt loads and low cash flow, service providers cannot afford to forego investments necessary to grow their customer base—and that requires extending their networks to complete “last mile” connectivity.

Now that they are being more discriminating about way they spend their money, service provider managers are demanding high-bandwidth technologies that will also lower OPEX. Flexible networks that can adjust to changing customer concentrations and metro environments are needed. Combining optical wireless and fiber to create optical networks offers best solution to these problems. The reward for successfully combining these two optical technologies is attainable and economically viable.

Complementary deployment of optical wireless and fiber serves needs of a variety of carrier types in metropolitan networks. Market growth for both last mile access and network extension applications is predicted to experience a 219% growth rate in 2001 over 2000 and has potential to extend metro last-mile networks.7 Despite questions about economic growth, there is no reason to expect that customer demand for bandwidth will slow in near future, and although carrier capital spending may have slowed to a crawl, prospects for growth remain strong.8 SG Cowen projects carrier spending on new equipment, after two years of decline, should hit $102 billion by 2003. Metro optical networks are expected to see $57.3 billion invested by 2005.

Conclusion The most exciting possibilities for future of information economy will only be practical and profitable when network connectivity is expanded to reach a broad customer base. Telephone lines have this connectivity, but they don’t offer capacity to enable true high-bandwidth communications. The network fiber backbone or “core” can carry bandwidth, but has yet to be connected to majority of potential users. A new paradigm for building optical networks offers an alternative to expensive and timeconsuming fiber-only metro networks. By combining optical wireless and fiber, networks can be built quickly and provide affordable and scalable connections to end-users, who are expected to continue increasing demand for bandwidth.

Source 7: The Strategis Group, Free Space Optics: Global Trends, Positioning, and Forecasts, September, 2001 Source 8: Optical Networking Industry, SG Cowen Securities Corp., August 2001

Benefits & Drawbacks Fiber optic cable is optimal for transmitting high-resolution multi-media over long distances, a feature which makes it particularly appropriate for digital signage. Fiber optic cable provides network-independent performance without downtime or transmission lags. It can transfer media over 40 kilometers or more. In addition, it requires no special infrastructure, software or display-side CPUs.

However, fiber optic is a point-to-point technology – in other words, a pure fiber optic cable solution will not allow multiple displays to receive output from a single video source. This can prove a significant obstacle for multiple-display digital signage installations such as malls and airports.

In addition, fiber optic cable has a high price relative to other technologies. Fiber optic cable’s expense can prove prohibitive when planning a large digital signage project. A possible solution, discussed below, is combination of fiber optic cable with other, less expensive solutions, allowing user to benefit from fiber optic cable’s advantages while reducing total cost of project.

CAT5 Distribution Systems CAT5 cable is also a transmission medium favored for local installations that need high bandwidth and high resolution without any existing network infrastructure. CAT5 cable technology provides these advantages at a considerably lower cost than fiber optic cable. CAT5 technology supports real-time multi-media transfer through inexpensive, low density, twisted pair cabling.

Benefits & Drawbacks In certain ways, CAT5 technology as a distribution platform combines best aspects of fiber-optic and network technologies. Like fiber optic technology, CAT5 technology requires no special software or display-side CPUs, and is completely hardware-based and network independent. Only transmitter and receiving units are required. While CAT5 covers shorter distances than fiber optic cable (typically 100-300 m/300-1000 ft), CAT5 cable costs considerably less than fiber optic cable, making it a leading option for combination solutions which overcome CAT5 cable’s distance limitations.

In addition, CAT5 technology can be used in point-to-multi-point applications, allowing broadcast of media content from one central source to hundreds of display stations. As a result, CAT5 technology alone or combined with fiber optic cable is an ideal solution for multiple-display digital signage installations.

Due to its network independence, CAT5 cable allows high performance, real-time transmission of high-resolution multi-media without slowdowns or downtime. If CAT5 technology is combined with a BIOS-level hardware solution for remote access over IP (such as a KVM IP extender), it can even allow remote maintenance and trouble shooting for content server that manages content to be displayed, minimizing down time and loss of investment.

CAT5 cable’s low expense, ease of installation, and flexibility make it a good choice for a primary distribution technology as well as a leading “last mile” option for combination platforms.

Combination Technologies Because of advantages and drawbacks of each of technologies listed above, it is frequently advisable to use a combination of technologies for optimal performance at lowest possible cost.

Fiber optic and CAT5 cable When dealing with high-resolution media over large distances that must be broadcast to a group of displays, a combination of fiber optic and CAT5 cable is optimal solution. In this case, fiber optic cable is used for distance broadcasting together with a local CAT5 video broadcaster for “splitting” broadcast to various displays. This is a simple solution to install, since all that is needed is to connect fiber optic receiver with CAT5 video broadcaster. And use of CAT5 cable for last 50-150 meters/150-500 feet of cabling instead of fiber optic cable can provide significant savings.

Benefits High resolution & performance Hardware solution Point to multi-point No special infrastructure or display-side software required Network independent Long distance Supports groups of displays Lower cost than pure fiber optic

Conclusion: By combining two technologies into same solution and using true advantages of each type of cable you were able to save almost 17% or $17,500 in direct costs to your customer.

Data Network and CAT5 cable When managing multiple groups of digital signage displays from a remote location, a combination of data networking and local CAT5 cabling can give user best of both worlds: remote management over IP combined with low-cost and network-independent infrastructure. The “last mile” use of CAT5 in place of data networks at display end saves cost of a computer (or CPU) for every display. All that is needed is a local central server, which is remotely managed through data network. The local server is connected to multiple displays through CAT5 technology, freeing local installation from network dependence. The digital signage of each location is network-independent, and each installation is far less expensive to implement. Bandwidth issues are also surmounted by transmitting media to local computer ahead of time for scheduling on-the-fly. At time of broadcast, media is transmitted locally over CAT5 cabling, which is network independent and not limited by bandwidth.

Benefits Point to multi-point High resolution & performance No local infrastructure or display-side software required Locally network independent Low cost

Conclusion Distribution infrastructure is an important part of digital signage, and choosing correct distribution technology is a crucial element of any digital signage project. While each distribution technology has its advantages and drawbacks, correct combination of technologies can achieve low cost and high performance no matter what project size or complexity.

Minicom Advanced Systems is a leading manufacturer of innovative A/V distribution solutions.