May 3, 2005 Arlington, VA -- The Fiber Optics LAN Section (FOLS) of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has elected its officers for 2005. According to a press release, FOLS serves as an educational resource, providing information to users about the benefits of fiber in customer-owned networks.
Gary Cawley, business development manager at TTelectronics/OPTEK, was elected as Section Chair.
"We are lucky to have Gary stepping into the role of Section Chair," says John Struhar, who chaired the FOLS for the past three years. "His understanding of the electronics portion of this industry adds tremendous value to the FOLS, by helping us better understand the electronics portion of the network."
Struhar said that Cawley is leading the FOLS at a time when standards development is giving network designers far more options.
"The deployment of fiber to the Telecom Enclosure (FTTE) is now supported by TIA-569B 'Pathways and Spaces' standard, and the TIA 568-B.1 Addendum 5, which together define the telecom enclosure (TE) space and TE cabling," continues Struhar. "This enables a standards-supported solution that brings the benefits of fiber closer to the user, while keeping costs very low."
"I am excited to be elected as FOLS chair at this important time in our industry," confirms Cawley. "Emerging architectures coupled with the reduced costs of electronics are making fiber a compelling choice."
He added that the FOLS is poised to launch the third generation of its interactive cost model, which allows users to compare the costs of a hierarchical star network architecture, which utilizes fiber in the backbone and UTP copper cable in the horizontal, to architectures that utilize either centralized cabling or FTTE.
"Our newest cost model captures the most current choices available to designers, and is more flexible and easier to use than our previous versions," contends Cawley. "We believe that it will become a valuable tool that will help designers and end users better evaluate the options open to them when designing their cabling infrastructure."
Other newly elected members included:
* Vice Chair, Dan Harman, 3M
* Communication Subcommittee Chair, Rodney Casteel, CommScope
* Membership Subcommittee Chair, Beni Blell, Berk-Tek
* Standards Subcommittee Chair, Herb Congdon, Tyco Electronics
FOLS was founded in 1993, to provide information on the use of fiber in the backbone and horizontal portions of premises networks.