Case Studies

Collier County

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The Challenge:

In exploring networking alternatives, the Clerk's MIS team ruled out fiber-optic cable as cost prohibitive because a fiber link was priced at around $50,000. They net looked at different wireless solutions before choosing a WiFi bridge (802.11b) that was designed to deliver up to 11 Mbps of bandwidth to the remote building, which housed approximately 60 employees. While the price point of the WiFi bridge was more affordable than the T1, the Clerk's Court was disappointed with its overall performance.

With the WiFi bridge, the team was unable to obtain more that 3-4 Mbps of true bandwidth, and initially there also were reliability problems as the WiFi bridge failed on occasion. In the long run, however, the biggest concerns become performance and security. "The WiFi bridge was just too slow to meet the data-intensive needs or the finance department," explains Handshaw. "We also became increasingly worried about security issues since we couldn't afford to have anyone intercept our highly sensitive information."

Before giving up on the RF altogether, the Clerk's Court evaluated a 54 Mbps Aeronet wireless radio (802.11g) from Cisco Systems. Again, the concern for performance arose, since the half-duplex solution would most likely deliver only between 20-30 Mbps at best. In addition, the MIS team wanted to avoid installing proprietary systems on its network and they couldn't wait for a standard to be established for an end-to-end solution with 54 Mbps RF products.

At this point, Handshaw pulled out some research he had compiled several years earlier on optical wireless products based on free space optics (FSO) technology. On the performance side, FSO-based products were far superior to the WiFi bridge, considering that the Clerk's Court could purchase a 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet FSO solution for about the same price as the 11 Mbps WiFi bridge. He also found very appealing the fact that optical wireless products are a physical transport device. "Optical wireless is a true Ethernet solution, unlike a WiFi bridge which adds another network segment and an additional layer of complexity," says Handshaw, "With FSO, its straight Ethernet with less if no overhead at all".

Handshaw's only hesitation with optical wireless was reliability. He had heard that FSO could be susceptible to weather conditions like rain and fog or even flying birds. He recalls, "Since we're in a region that experiences heavy rains throughout the year, we were somewhat dubious that the optical wireless solution would hold up and provide the level of network uptime we demanded." However, the significant gains in bandwidth led them to put optical wireless to the test and see how well it performed, after receiving the assurance from LightPointe that there would be no such problems.

In searching for viable optical wireless products, the Clerk's Court spoke to several references for LightPointe during the first half of 2004 before deciding that the company's field-proven solutions had a strong track record in different climates and regions around the world. After careful consideration, they selected LightPointe's FlightLite 155E, a 10 Mbps system, to meet the Clerk's Court building-to-building connectivity requirements.

LightPointe Solution:

According to Handshaw, system installation of the FlightLite 155E was straightforward and trouble-free. He personally installed the window-mounted devices in both buildings easily in less than an hour (not including travel time between the two sites). Almost immediately, the performance gains were noticeable. During a comparative test, Handshaw transferred a 1GB fine between the tow buildings using both the WiFi and FSO links. The WiFi link took nearly an hour to transmit the file, compared to the optical wireless link, which transferred the file in less than 3 minutes. The LightPointe system also was much faster than the WiFi bridge, delivering 100 Mbps in comparison to the paltry 3-4 Mbps the Clerk's Court achieved most of the time with its RF device.

With the system up and running, the Clerk's Court has experienced no performance or reliability problems. Still, Handshaw had a lingering doubt about how well the FlightLite would fare during heavy rains, which typically accompany hurricane season in early fall. In August 2004, the FlightLite faced its ultimate test when Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 hurricane, bore down on Florida's Gulf Coast, cutting a swath of destruction through the Southwest region of the state and causing billions of dollars in damage.

As Hurricane Charley approached Naples, the southernmost city of Florida's West Coast, the MIS team prepared for the worst. They conducted backups and prepared to evacuate. Handshaw checked operation on the FlightLite, which remained stable despite gusting winds and the start of heavy rains. Over the weekend with the storm surging outside, Handshaw monitored FlightLite's performance from home. Despite 145 mph winds and torrential downpours, he only saw minor fluctuations in signal strength-but no downtime.

Sound Byte:

"FlightLite gives us all the bandwidth we need at the best price-per-port on the market, backed by extremely reliable and secure performance. We're confident this system will keep our network up and running."
— Jeffery C. Handshaw, Network Administrator
Management Information Systems Division Collier Count Clerk of the Circuit Court