Tylite, Inc., a Pacific Northwest architect of architect of high-speed Ethernet over Fiber networks, announced they have developed a subscriber demarcation box and fiber-optic system design that provides economical delivery of Internet and broadcast video services over an Ethernet fiber network. This product will be used in the deployment of networks by municipalities, public utility districts (PUDs), and residential developers.
In designing the new product, the company assessed the requirements for an economical system build-out, without sacrificing robustness or maintainability, and incorporated a customer base of residential, business, education and governmental users. The product design required support of all current information transfer capabilities, i.e., Internet, multi-channel multi-viewer television, and telephone service, at the price/performance of today's copper telephone line service
In addition, Tylite's design allowed for future applications, such as super-high-speed Internet (up to Gigabit speeds and beyond), high definition television (HDTV), video conferencing, video telephony, remote control and security, and many other new applications. The system also had to be "future-proofed" to handle the technologies assumed to be available for the next twenty to thirty years without a system rebuild. Finally, it had to be as cheap or cheaper to build as the current costs of building a cable television system.
The Future Proof Fiber (FPF) demarcation box is a low cost device, incorporating a minimal hardware design that is very economical to install and service, but still meets stringent environmental and accessibility regulations. The cost of this device is a fraction of those products currently offered by industry competitors.
The FPF demarcation box provides an uplink connection to a fiber network, with a standard television coax interface and a standard CAT-5e data downlink to the residential, business or governmental user. These end user links provide full-duplex 100 Mbits/sec bandwidth for data and video functionality. The product is powered via the Ethernet network, and can be connected to a UPS for battery backup.
The demarcation box patent pending design eliminates the need for an expensive set-top box within the residence since it carries broadcast video directly from the service provider, over the fiber network, to the subscriber's television.
"Our product design is very clean and simple, allowing customers to make a smaller investment that brings an exponential increase in functionality to the subscriber base", said Jim Wilson, president and chief executive officer of Tylite. "And our research has proven that customers are looking to deploy products that have minimal technical complexity and cost. The Future Proof Fiber demarcation box is an excellent fit for these customers' needs."
"True fiber to the home networks are now financially feasible," said Fred Bielen, Tylite's vice president of network engineering. "Our cost justification models show that revenues solely from Internet services will support this fiber to the home network design. Other fiber to the home designs depend on high take rates and revenues generated by Internet, video and telephony, plus an expensive set-top box will be needed just to watch basic television channels."
Tylite plans to have production models of the FPF demarcation box available in the early fall timeframe and is seeking additional investors for funding of the production phase of their new product.
Tylite Inc. is a privately held corporation based in Liberty Lake, WA. For more information on Tylite, please visit the company's website at www.tylite.com.