A-dillar, a-dollar, some money-saving scholars - air-blown fiber-optic cabling - Company Operations

Communications News, Oct, 1999

University saves millions with air-blown fiber communications cabling system.

Almost a decade ago, the telecommunications team at University of California, Riverside (UCR), determined that fiber-optic cabling would be essential in providing the bandwidth needed to accommodate growth. One of the University of California's nine campuses, UCR's 1,200 acres lie at the foot of the Box Spring Mountains in Riverside, a city of 250,000 people in Southern California. Today, UCR is experiencing the most dramatic growth in its history. With a current enrollment of 11,600 students, the University plans to accommodate 21,000 students by 2009 and is already laying the groundwork for its data LAN network to support that growth.

In the early 1990s, data communications were the immediate concern, with computer data transmissions and Internet connections on campus already beginning to skyrocket. However, there was also a growing interest in a variety of other potential applications, including a distributed telephone system, and video, security, and facilities-management systems.

UCR began its fiber-optic cabling initiative, replacing its copper backbone with a fiber-optic backbone and planning a conventional fiber-optic campus network. Problems developed almost immediately, spurred by increasing demand and the complexity of the campus network configuration. In its serial-bus topology, cables were installed from a centralized data hub in the statistics and computing building to 13 other key buildings requiring high-speed data support. As the cable passed through each building, strands could be dropped (for use in that building) or patched-through to support downstream destinations. Unfortunately, the total number of strands was insufficient to keep pace with the rapid expansion of LAN connections. In addition, due to the large number of serial segments and subsequent patching requirements, performance problems began to occur--including aggregate signal loss, difficulty of diagnosis and repair, and excessive downtime.

UCR dramatically changed direction when the telecommunications department heard about FutureFLEX, an innovative air-blown fiber-optic (ABF) cabling system developed by Sumitomo Electric Lightwave Corp. Intrigued by the technology, UCR conducted extensive testing and detailed analysis before making the decision to switch from a conventional fiber-optic system to the newer, more flexible, and less expensive ABF system. As a result of that decision, the University saved an estimated $2.5 million in construction and installation costs and realized up to $500,000 in additional savings over the next few years, says Michael Moreno, formerly UCR's director of communications.

IMPROVED PERFORMANCE, LOWER COSTS

According to Moreno, UCR's initial five ABF pilot projects were small-scale, providing an excellent environment for firsthand evaluation of the system. "Overall, in our test projects, the ABF system yielded about 44% cost savings over conventional fiber-optic system estimates," he says. "Tests also revealed that the virtually stress-free air-blown installation process yielded superior results across the board in cable performance."

Once the pilot tests were completed, UCR committed to its first large-scale ABF deployment--replacing its conventional campus-wide fiber-optic backbone with ABE This project was completed in four months instead of the 12-month installation originally planned for conventional fiber. The cost savings for this project were equally impressive. Overall, ABF costs reached $379,000, in stark contrast to the $3.5 million in expenditures forecast for a conventional fiber system.

Lower cost was not the only benefit of air-blown fiber. Performance improvements included better system reliability, reduced administrative time, and superior signal integrity resulting from point-to-point connectivity requiring no patching or splicing. UCR also realized dramatic increases in network flexibility and capacity.

Jill Hishmeh, UCR's current manager of communications, explains: "The ABF system includes important design features which, for us, resulted in 90% surplus capacity to accommodate future growth. The system also provided for multiple routing paths to provide redundancy and virtually instant recovery if one route shuts down for any reason. With so much construction planned for the campus throughout the '90s and beyond, this was a very desirable strategy that would have been far too costly to implement if conventional fiber had been deployed."

Efficient space utilization was another practical--and cost-saving--advantage provided by ABF technology. With the compact size of the cabling infrastructure, the new ABF system fit easily within the limited confines of UCR's existing conduit system. Because of this, the university was able to cancel plans for a costly and highly disruptive conduit system upgrade.

HOW ABF TECHNOLOGY WORKS

The heart of the FutureFLEX air-blown fiber-optic cabling system is an infrastructure of rugged, flexible tube cables used in place of traditional innerduct. Each tube cable contains up to 19 individually identified tube cells. The cells are joined in tube distribution units (TDUs) or junction boxes using push-fit connectors to provide a direct route between the network hub and the application. The TDUs replace conventional fiber splice hardware at tube cable transitions and branching locations.