Case Studies

DAIN RAUSCHER

The Challenge:

Dain Rauscher Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada, is one of the nation's largest full-service securities firms with 1,130 investment executives and 4,090 employees. When Dain Rauscher needed to link its data center to a new building housing the company's applications staff at its Minneapolis headquarters, it sought a cost-effective solution that would provide optical bandwidth at a competitive cost. Its challenge was to cost-effectively connect a Dain Rauscher data center to a new office building for the company's applications staff while accommodating future bandwidth needs.

LightPointe Solution:

LightPointe's optical wireless solutions provide fiber-optic connectivity that keeps communication networks at this large securities firm nimble, fast, and efficient. A leader in free-space optics (FSO) technology, LightPointe's Flight™ Optical Wireless products are now at work in more than 60 countries, in 2,000-plus installations.

After considering various network connectivity choices, Dain Rauscher selected a LightPointe optical wireless system that provides bandwidth up to 155 Mbps — 100 times the capacity of a T1 line, and more than triple the capacity of a DS-3 connection. The LightPointe system included SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) to ensure remote monitoring capabilities.

The pair of optical wireless links were mounted indoors behind windows of the two data centers, connecting the 12th floor of one building to the 13th floor of the other via line of sight across a busy downtown street. Throughout the winter, the systems performed solidly. Heavy snow and rain posed no trouble. A freak maritime fog that blanketed the area with zero visibility briefly affected the optical signal for less than 5 minutes. According to Dain Rauscher, the savings are tangible.

LightPointe's Flight Optical Wireless family offers exceptional flexibility, working with any network protocol (ATM, SONET, IP, Gigabit Ethernet, and others) in any topology (point-to-point, ring, mesh or point-to-multipoint). The units can be mounted on rooftops, behind windows-or any combination.

Sound Byte:

"It'll pay for itself in a year versus a DS-3 while providing three times the bandwidth. It's a nice flexible solution, and it's a great way to get away from recurring costs."
— Darin Pettis, Senior Network Analyst for Wide Area Networks at Dain Rauscher