Triton Network Systems Inc. is aiming to give competitive local exchange carriers a wireless
alternative to building fiber-optic networks to get into the local loop, yet keep the same quality associated with fiber-
optics.
Capitalizing on an exclusive design from Lockheed Martin Electronics and Missiles Co., Triton Network
plans to introduce a wireless product line that mirrors the quality of a fiber-optic network-99.999 percent availability at
a 10 bit error rate.
The company said its Invisible Fiber product line can be deployed at 38 GHz, as well as at the
local multipoint distribution services and local multipoint carriers services frequencies. Carriers can deploy a fixed
wireless SONET network, extend their current network, deliver Internet services or use it as a backhaul in point-to-
multipoint networks.
A common problem with CLECs trying to compete with established Bell companies in the
local loop is where to deploy service, said Brian Andrew, Triton Network president and chief executive officer. It is
expensive and time-consuming for the CLEC to bury fiber-optic cable around their planned coverage area, yet fiber-
optics offers the quality CLECs need to compete.
“We solve the 40-mile problem,” Andrew said,
commenting that CLECs will want to provide coverage throughout a city rather than only in a one-mile pocket of a
city.
The Orlando-based company, which has garnered more than $40 million in venture-capital financing in the last
six months, is testing its consecutive point wireless system in Walt Disney World at 38 GHz. The trial, which started in
September, allows Disney officials to set up a wide area network between outdoor special events areas and its office.
To date, the company has tested voice over Internet Protocol, video conferencing and data applications. There have
been no outages because of rainfall and data rates were operating at 99.99999 percent
availability.
“Consecutive point networks use a point-to-point-to-point design that mimics telephony and data
ring architectures,” the two-year-old company said. “To form a consecutive point network, two Invisible
Fiber units are deployed in a line-of-sight link and are placed back-to-back ‘in ring’ with additional links. This
constitutes a fixed wireless network topology only offered by Triton Network Systems.”
The company
estimates its system costs $15,000 per mile to deploy, compared with $150,000 per mile to deploy a fiber
network.
Triton Network presently has exclusive commercial rights to Lockheed Martin’s Monolithic Millimeter
wave Integrated Circuit technology. Triton Network’s first product, Invisible Fiber 38 GHz, is available in a SONET
OC-3 and 100 Megabits per second fast Ethernet version. The outdoor unit measures 16 inches by 16 inches by 14.5
inches. There is no indoor unit. Instead, the product uses a direct fiber connection. Also, the size of the product negates
any zoning issues, Andrew said, because it falls under federal guidelines for direct broadcast satellite dishes.
