This press release is copyrighted by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE). Its use is granted only to journalists and news media.
Talk about sending laser beams through the air and most people think you're talking about weapons--phasers, death rays, whatever. But the most practical use of airborne laser beams is turning out to be for communications. Airborne laser beams, known in the industry as free-space optics (FSO), offer high data rates (channels with better than 1000 megabits per second) and require less than one-fifth the cost of burying optical fiber.
Authors Heinz A. Willebrand and Baksheesh S. Ghuman, of LightPointe Communications Inc., explain the technology. It uses low-power lasers, so it is eye-safe. It can be installed quickly, too, because it involves no digging. The biggest stumbling block: fog.
Contact: Michael J. Riezenman, 212 419 7558, [email protected].For faxed copies of the complete article ("Fiber Optics Without Fiber" by Heinz A. Willebrand and Baksheesh S. Ghuman, LightPointe Communications Inc., IEEE Spectrum, August 2001, pp. 40-45) or to arrange an interview, contact Nancy T. Hantman, 212 419 7561, [email protected].
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