Harris radios take on Olympic task >BY Jason Meyers, Wireless Networks Editor

Thanks to fiber by land and microwave by air, Olympics viewers can remain confident that the video feed of the canoeing and kayaking competition will not be interrupted.

In the Ocoee River region near the Tennessee-North Carolina border where the events are being held, BellSouth has installed MegaStar 2000 Sonet microwave radios from the Farinon Division of Harris Corp. as emergency backup insurance for the OC-3 fiber ring that connects the Copper Hill, Tenn., central office with several other COs in BellSouth's network (see diagram). The CO is providing voice, video and data service for the Olympic venue. On half of the Sonet ring, the radios will provide a backup transmission route in case of a fiber outage.

"We started looking at what we could do to provide some diversity in this area," said Gail Smothers, project coordinator at BellSouth. "This product had the potential to provide us with the level of diversity we were looking for."

One of the alternatives to microwave backup was another fiber route, which didn't make financial sense for the terrain in the region. "That turned out to be pretty cost-prohibitive for that rural area," Smothers said.

The application is BellSouth's first use of the microwave equipment in its network, but the carrier is considering it for other uses.

Wireless operators rely on the MegaStar product as a cost-effective way to backhaul signals, but BellSouth's application marks its wireline network debut.

"We saw this as an opportunity to showcase the MegaStar radio as a very attractive means of providing route and media diversity," said Keith Bromberg, product manager at Harris Corp., Farinon Division, based in Redwood Shores, Calif.

Besides its low cost and ease and speed of deployment, the radio's Sonet capabilities made it a good fit for BellSouth's needs, said Bob Stillerman, director of marketing at Harris Farinon.

"We found synergy with the Sonet technology," he said. "We have a Sonet radio that really complements the backbone architecture."

The MegaStar 2000 is a joint development of Harris Farinon and Lucent Technologies, which supplies its DDM 2000 multiplexers that provide the product's synchronous capabilities, said Dixie Riddle, account representative at Lucent.