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Several BridgeWave’s (News - Alert) gigabit wireless links have been installed by Bloom Energy on its Sunnyvale, California campus. Connectivity between five buildings on the Bloom Energy campus will be now bridged with the ultra-high capacity GE60 links. As a result, the network uptime and productivity have been significantly improved at the Bloom Energy campus. An announcement in this regard has been made by the top supplier of 4G millimeter wave backhaul solutions, BridgeWave Communications. Bloom Energy is a provider of breakthrough solid oxide fuel cell technology based in Silicon Valley.

Bloom Energy was using the free space optical solutions prior to installing the BridgeWave links. Apart from causing erratic network connectivity between buildings, the optical solutions were also extremely sensitive to alignment issues. These included alignment issues caused by thermal differential expansion and compression. On average, about once a week, connectivity between the optical solutions was lost. Extreme user and IT frustrations were caused due to the disconnection of voice and email communication between buildings.

In a release, Chris Motta, director of IT of Bloom Energy said, “We needed to improve network connectivity and increase bandwidth, and determined that the existing optical solutions needed to be replaced. We looked for a solution that was not affected by changes in the environment and offered long-term stability while improving throughput.”

A number of solutions were evaluated by Bloom Energy’s IT team to replace the existing infrastructure. The alternatives considered were installing fiber on the campus or alternatively managing the network services through a contract with a telecommunications provider. Trenching fiber lines was however an extremely expensive labor- and time-intensive process. Also the leased fibers would have led to recurring expensive costs. The two alternatives were therefore dismissed. Pacific Communications installed the BridgeWave links which were up and running in one afternoon. The operation cost of BridgeWave links is also very minimal.

Voice, file transfer, email and Internet access on Bloom Energy’s campus are currently being supported by the BridgeWave links. According to Motta, in just four months, the links are expected to pay for themselves. By eliminating the weekly network outages, the links have led to an overall increase in IT staff productivity.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.