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fSONA's SONAbeam Laser System to Be Deployed By Ball State University Students for Delivery of High-Speed, Wireless Communications

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 June 2005, 09:00 CDT

fSONA Systems today announced that Ball State University researchers will soon deploy fSONA's point-to-point laser communications system designed to send broadband communications between buildings.

Faculty and students from Ball State's Institute for Wireless Innovation (IWI) are installing free space optics (FSO) communications equipment provided by fSONA, a developer of optical wireless solutions for the military, homeland security and service provider markets.

"The project will allow students to determine the viability of using lasers to transmit broadband communications between businesses in nearby locations," said Steve Jones, IWI director. "FSO communications are much cheaper and faster to install than using fiber optics that require installing wire-lines across blocks or miles yet they provide very high bandwidth up to 1.5 gigabits per second. FSO technology has the potential to greatly lower the cost and time to deployment of broadband communications."

"fSONA's SONAbeam products represent a proven solution for broadband communications," said Sunny Taylor, Chief Executive Officer for fSONA. "In addition to the deployment at Ball State, a number of universities worldwide are using SONAbeam to connect their campus buildings with secure, high-speed wireless networking."

FSO, also known as optical wireless, refers to the transmission of modulated visible or infrared beams for the purpose of wireless communications. Like fiber optics, FSO uses lasers to transmit data, but instead of enclosing the data stream in a fiber optic band, it is transmitted through the air. fSONA's SONAbeam transmits invisible light beams which because of their operating wavelength of 1550 nanometers are inherently eye-safe. SONAbeam terminals are protocol transparent, layer 1 devices that implement FSO links for transport of high-speed protocols at full line-rate.

FSO technology has come full circle - it was initially developed by the military decades ago but languished until the commercial sector took up development and made significant improvements such that now the military is purchasing systems from the commercial sector.

ABOUT THE INSTITUTE FOR WIRELESS INNOVATION

IWI was created as a result of partnership between Ball State's Center for Information and Communication Sciences (CICS) and Ericsson. The goal of the institute is to provide opportunities for CICS students and others to learn about leading-edge wireless technologies through workshops and hands-on labs.

ABOUT fSONA SYSTEMS

fSONA was founded in 1997 and is recognized as the preferred provider of optical wireless solutions for the military, homeland security and service provider markets. Our customers include federal agencies, military bases, mobile wireless and Internet service providers as well as public and private enterprises. The SONAbeam series of products, based on free-space optics (FSO), use a globally unlicensed, wireless technology operating at speeds up to 1.5 Gbps and distances up to 5km. For more information visit www.fsona.com or www.free-space-optics.org

fSONA and SONAbeam(TM) are trademarks of fSONA Systems Corp. All other trademarks are properties of their respective companies.

Source: Business Wire

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