November 12, 2002--Metrobility Optical Systems today announced that Buckeye TeleSystem, a provider of business telecommunications in the northwest Ohio area, is utilizing Metrobility's Radiance technology to deploy optical Ethernet for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint networks to business customers.
Buckeye TeleSystem, a sister company to Buckeye CableSystem, is making use of dark fiber which was installed in place of coaxial cable during a cable rebuild. While the fiber was initially targeted for the cable TV application, they discovered that they could also offer businesses high speed access between sites. Utilizing the Cisco 15454 switch on their SONET backbone, they deliver 10-Mbit/sec and 100-Mbit/sec Ethernet VLAN services via the Radiance R5000 and R1000 chassis-based access devices. The Radiance optical Ethernet system allows network technicians to install and test high speed optical lines in a matter of hours.
"The Radiance system offers in-band signaling which allows us to see the remote ports giving us an instant indication of link status," says John Schroeder, design engineer with Buckeye TeleSystem. "This feature alone was a key factor in our decision to use Metrobility. Buckeye also uses Metrobility's browser-based WebBeacon element manager software to send traps and alarms to their SNMP-based alarm software.
Major users of the network include a regional hospital system, a graphics firm and an ISP. "The regional hospital has connected six branch facilities to their servers located in the main facility. They have found that their access is fast enough that they were able to eliminate servers at each location," says Schroeder. "High availability is extremely critical to our business. The Radiance R5000 is available with dual, load-sharing 48 V DC power, so we are confident that a major power outage will not affect our customers. We can also offer redundancy features not generally available at customer sites."
While distances between sites don't exceed 8-9 km, Buckeye TeleSystem could support up to 100-km segments with the current Metrobility equipment. Buckeye operates more than 250 miles of fiber-optic lines throughout the northwest Ohio area.
Metrobility Optical Systems is an ISO 9001:2000 registered company based in Merrimack, NH. More information is available on the company's Web site, www.metrobility.com.