Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Google Ultra High Speed Fiber Project Kansas City, KS

Google ultra high speed gigabit ethernet fiber optic project awarded to Kansas City, KS

Google Kansas City Fiber Project

Google announces their ultra high speed fiber optic project will take place in Kansas City, KS. "In selecting a city, our goal was to find a location where we could build efficiently, make an impact on the community and develop relationships with local government and community organizations. We’ve found this in Kansas City. We’ll be working closely with local organizations including the Kauffman Foundation, KCNext and the University of Kansas Medical Center to help develop the gigabit applications of the future."

They say the project could start bringing ultra high speed internet service by 2012. This would deliver 100 times faster internet speeds than most Americans have today. People will be able to stream videos and music downloads much faster, businesses can perform video conferencing without delay and schools can bring online interaction to the classrooms. Google says, "We’ve heard from some communities that they’re disappointed not to have been selected for our initial build. So just to reiterate what I've said many times in interviews: we're so thrilled by the interest we've generated—today is the start, not the end the project. And over the coming months, we'll be talking to other interested cities about the possibility of us bringing ultra high-speed broadband to their communities."

You can read the full article at the Official Google Blog: Ultra High-speed broadband is coming to Kansas City, Kansas

Related Posts:
10 Gigabit Ethernet Technology Overview
Stock Trades to Exploit Speed of Light
How It's Made: Fiber Optic Cable
Pulling Fiber Optic Cable
How To Install Fiber Optic Fan Out Kit

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Stock trades to exploit speed of light, says researcher

Interesting article on fiber optics and stock exchange trading written by Jason Palmer, Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Dallas

Optimal high-frequency trading locations (blue) exist for pairs

of major financial exchanges (red)

Financial institutions may soon change what they trade or where they do their trading because of the speed of light.

"High-frequency trading" carried out by computers often depends on differing prices of a financial instrument in two geographically-separated markets.

Exactly how far the signals have to go can make a difference in such trades.

Alexander Wissner-Gross told the American Physical Society meeting that financial institutions are looking at ways to exploit the light-speed trick.

Dr Wissner-Gross, of Harvard University, said that the latencies - essentially, the time delay for a signal to wing its way from one global financial centre to another - advantaged some locations for some trades and different locations for others.

There is a vast market for ever-faster fibre-optic cables to try to physically "get there faster" but Dr Wissner-Gross said that the purely technological approach to gaining an advantage was reaching a limit.

Trades now travel at nearly 90% of the ultimate speed limit set by physics, the speed of light in the cables.
Competitive advantage

His first solution, published in 2010, considered the various latencies in global fibre-optic links and mapped out where the optimal points for financial transactions to originate - midway between two major financial hubs to maximise the chance of "buying low" in one place and "selling high" in another.

That of course resulted in a number of ideal locations in all corners of the globe, including the oceans. But wholesale relocation of operations does not immediately appeal to many firms.

"I'm now working... with real companies on real deployments that don't require you deploy a floating data centre in the middle of the ocean; we say, 'OK, you have your existing infrastructure, that's not moving - now, given your location, which stocks in various locations are you best positioned to trade?'"

"If you don't have the budget to put new data centres in the middle of the ocean you can, for example, use existing data centres that are an approximation to the optimal location in the ocean - say, Nova Scotia for New York to London," Dr Wissner-Gross told BBC News.

Because there is a clear, physical advantage to the approach, Dr Wissner-Gross said that the first firm to try to exploit the effect will be at significant competitive advantage - until more firms follow suit.

That means that out-of-the-way places - at high latitudes or mid-ocean island chains - could in time turn into global financial centres.

"It's instructive to start to think about latency correlations as a new sort of resource," he explained.

"If you're positioned between two major financial hubs, you may be far out of the way, rather far from population centres, maybe economically poor, but because of your unique position, that could be a natural resource."

Original article can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12827752 " target="_blank"> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12827752

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Corning Aerial Self Supporting Fiber Optic Cable

Aerial fiber optic cable is a great solution for installations where direct burial is not available. This fiber optic cable has a built in steel messenger, used to connect the fiber from building to building, or pole to pole. Let's take a look at what this fiber cable looks like:

Go to Aerial Fiber Optic Cable at Discount-Low-Voltage.com to order, or get the full product specifications.

Related Posts:

Corning Armored Direct Burial Fiber Optic Cable (Video)
Interlocking Armor Fiber Optic Cable (Video)
Interlocking Armored Fiber Cable or Non Armored Fiber Cable with Innerduct?
How It's Made: Fiber Optic Cable (Video)
What's the Difference Between Loose Tube Fiber and Tight Buffer Fiber Cable
Pulling Fiber Optic Cable - Planning Your Installation
How To Articles - Over 20 Articles