As the downturn in the high-tech industry continues, fiber-optics
manufacturers are stepping up their efforts to corner a larger share
of the potentially lucrative business of installing cabling for
local-area networks, or LANs, for computer systems on the nation’s
military installations.
In all, the Defense Department operates more than 25,000 computer
systems, located on 519 fixed installations in the United States
and abroad. These computers are key elements in many high-tech weapons,
command and control functions, the Global Positioning System, inventory
and transportation management programs, medical equipment and pay
and personnel record-keeping. Most of them, these days, are linked
through LANs.
Upgrading the cables and connectors to handle recent technology—such
as videoconferencing, multimedia and 3D modeling—could cost
as much as a billion dollars per year, according to Dan Silver,
market development manager at the 3M Telecom Systems Division in
Austin, Texas. His company, he asserted, is leading the competition
for the fiber-optics portion of that business.
“It’s a huge market,” he said, “and we’re
the only company focusing on an all-fiber technology.”
Fiber optics are bundles of thin glass filaments through which
light beams are transmitted, Silver explained. Fiber optics can
carry up to 30,000 times the information of electric waves over
copper wire, he said.
Traditionally, however, LANs have used copper cables—the
original conduits for electrical power—because they were considered
less expensive, more supple and simpler to install than fiber. In
fact, Copper still accounts for 80 percent of LAN cabling. But it
has limitations compared to fiber optics, according to Silver.
“Copper cabling can be run no further than 90 meters from
a central telecommunications closet to a desktop computer,”
Silver said. But fiber can span distances as great as two kilometers
or more, he said.
This means that an organization using fiber needs fewer closets
and can place its computers further apart. That’s significant
for military bases, which can stretch over hundreds of square miles
and include hundreds of offices, Silver said.
Then, there’s the matter of longevity. Copper cabling usually
is replaced every three to five years, Silver said, whereas fiber
is good for 20 years or more.
Three years ago, 3M came up with a product that it says makes use
of the strong points of fiber and overcomes its weaknesses, making
it competitive with copper.
The product, called the Volition system, consists of all of the
components needed to install a complete fiber-optic system, stretching
from where the cable enters the building to the desktop, explained
Silver.
The key ingredient in the Volition system is a low-cost, high-performance
fiber connector called VF-45. This device is a two-part, molded
plastic plug and socket, which is simpler to use than traditional
fiber connectors, according to Silver.
The VF-45 socket takes only two minutes to install, compared to
30 minutes for older versions, and it costs about $2.50 apiece,
or seven to eight times less than traditional fiber connectors,
Silver said.
The VF-45 was invented by 3M engineer James Bylander after a trip
to an Austin hardware store and the purchase of an $.89 wall-outlet
switchbox. The box, he noticed, contained sharp angles that gave
him the idea to use sharp-angled grooves, or v-grooves, to align
and connect fibers.
Other components of the Volition system include a crush-resistant,
flexible patch cord and a media converter that transforms an electrical
signal to an optical one and vice versa. The media converter allows
customers to build a network that takes advantage of high-bandwidth
fiber in their horizontal cabling plant without replacing their
existing network interface cards (NICs) and hubs, Silver explained.
Volition cables are made of .09, 50 and 62.5 micron glass optical
fiber. The cable connecting the wall outlet to the computer is highly
durable and abrasion-resistant, said Silver. It has a compressible
glass layer to make it tough enough to withstand cable pulling,
stripping, termination and 90-degree bends, he explained.
Such components are key factors in reducing the costs associated
with fiber, according to a recent study by the Tolly Group, a testing
and consulting firm located in Manasquan, N.J. The study, cited
by 3M officials, said that fiber-based networks can cost 15 to 22
percent less than copper LANs. The study provided two examples:
With prices becoming more competitive, military installations are
beginning to opt for fiber optics. Thus far, an estimated 19 Army,
Navy and Air Force bases have installed Volition systems within
their facilities.
The Materials and Manufacturing Directorate of the U.S. Air Force
Research Laboratory, for example, deployed more than 200 miles of
fiber-optic cabling among 1,300 network nodes within five buildings
of its headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
The directorate’s decision to go with fiber rather than copper
was due primarily to fiber’s greater bandwidth capability
and resistance to radio frequency and electromagnetic interference,
said communications and computer branch chief Mark Groff.
“It was a little more expensive than copper,” Groff
told National Defense. But installing copper would have meant that
“we would have to give up real estate,” and space is
tight at his facility, he said.
“We’re a laboratory, and the buildings are big,”
Groff explained. “That meant that either the cables had to
be long, or we had to have lots of telecommunications closets.”
The directorate was also concerned about noise, Groff said. “Unshielded
copper generates electrical noise,” he said. “We wanted
to minimize that.”
Security is another factor that was important to the directorate,
as is at most military installations. Unlike standard copper wiring,
fiber doesn’t emanate signals that can pose a potential security
risk, Groff said. “Fiber is a lot harder to tap into,”
he said. “It’s got a much higher security rating.”
The copper industry, however, isn’t conceding the military
market—or for that matter, the civilian one—to fiber
optics any time soon. For one thing, change is slow. Even with new
technology, installing fiber is only economical in new construction
or during thorough renovations of existing facilities.
Also, copper manufacturers are continuing to improve their cabling.
Since 1994, the industry has increased the bandwidth capacity of
copper cabling for telecommunications systems within commercial
buildings from Category 3, which could carry electronic signals
at bandwidths no greater than 16 megahertz (MHz), to Category 5e,
which can handle up to 100 MHz. The industry currently is developing
standards for Category 6, with a maximum of 250 MHz, and Category
7, with up to 600 MHz.
Fiber’s bandwidth capacity is 50 times that of Category 5
copper cable and eight times that of Category 7. Nevertheless, the
LAN cable has been one of copper’s fastest growing markets
and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, according to
William T. Black, vice president for wire and cable at the Copper
Development Association in New York City.
“Fiber is certainly penetrating the market,” Black
said. “But the market is so huge, and it is changing so slowly.
The market is also growing. There are a lot more links all the time,
and many of the new links are copper.”
Still, there may be a time when fiber dominates the LAN cable market—perhaps
“before my grandchildren are dead,” Black said.
Even within the fiber-optics industry, 3M has plenty of competition.
“There are half a dozen products out there,” said 3M’s
Silver. “But we’re the only ones offering an all-fiber
system.”
The entire fiber-optics industry has been hit by the weakening
economy. According to the most recent report from the Commerce Department,
the U.S. economy grew by a mere 0.7 percent in the spring, the lowest
growth rate in eight years.
Among the hardest hit was the technology sector, which includes
fiber optics. In July, for example, Lucent Technologies, of Murray
Hill, N.J., reported losses of 35 cents per share in the third quarter
of 2001. To cut its losses, the company’s chairman and CEO,
Henry Schacht, announced a number of steps, including reducing its
work force by approximately 19,000 since January. Another 15,000
to 20,000 workers would be laid off in 2002, Schacht said.
Lucent also agreed in July to sell its Optical Fiber Solutions
business to Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., of Tokyo, and Corning Incorporated,
of Corning, N.Y., for a combined total of $2.75 billion. The sale
to Furukawa is subject to regulatory approval.
Meanwhile, Corning served word in June that it was delaying construction
of a new optical fiber manufacturing facility in Oklahoma City and
slowing expansion of an existing one in Concord, N.C..
In addition to the general slowdown, 3M’s effort to sell
fiber-optic cabling to the military services may be hindered by
the Defense Department’s plan to conduct another round of
base realignments and closures (BRAC) in 2003. The chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Henry R. Shelton, told the House Armed
Services Committee in June that, as a result of force reductions
over the past decade, the armed forces still have 23 percent more
installations than they need. Maintaining those facilities, he said,
diverts funds badly needed for modernization and readiness.
Despite the looming BRAC, however, 3M officials remain confident
that there remain plenty of untapped markets for their fiber-optic
products as surviving military bases seek to modernize their telecommunications
facilities.
The company is also optimistic about the long-term fiber-optics
market in general. In June, 3M announced that it has increased production
of ceramic-ferruled fiber-optic connectors.
Demand for fiber-optic networks and their components is strong,
said 3M marketing operations manager Al Covino. “There are
only four ceramic-ferrule manufacturers in the world, and all of
them are currently running at capacity,” he said.
“In most cases, we have the capacity to fill existing orders
[and] meet existing lead times,” Covino said. The company,
he added, expects to “significantly expand our business.”