Howto:Lightpointe™ FlightLite™100 - Lightpointe - 3rd Party Product
Product name
Lightpointe™ FlightLite™100
Category
Functions
The Flightlite 100 is a member of the Lightpointe (http://www.lightpointe.com) series of fixed optics systems. Featuring an 802.3 10/100Mbps Ethernet interface it can easily be used as a 100Mbps LAN-to-LAN bridge.
Description
Objective
We were mainly interested in the devices compatibility with innovaphone equipment, both on layer 1/2 and in terms of typical traffic generated by VoIP devices. We have not tested the device performance under critical conditions like bad weather.
Test Scenario
2 LAN segments have been connected via the FlightLite Ethernet bridge. The receiver/transmitter units were connected to standard 100Mpbs Ethernet switches (Cisco Catalyst 3500 XL and Netgear FSM7326P). Power was supplied through the FlightLites 803.af PoE interface using PowerDsine 6001 inline power devices (so called “Power over LAN Hubs”). A number of PCs and IP200 where placed in each segment to generate traffic.
File transfer (large block size) traffic was generated to consume around 98% of the theoretical Ethernet bandwidth. IP200 G711 and G729 calls have been used to created typical (small block size, high packet rate) VoIP traffic.
Observations
Installation was quick and easy. The Ethernet interface allows for autosense/autoneg operation and negotiated successfully both with the switches and with IP200 and IP800 Ethernet ports. Although it complicates the wiring a bit, powering via the PowerDsine units worked fine. Optical calibration is straight forward, several LEDs clearly indicate the device status. Compatibility with switch-based PoE was not tested.
There was no observable difference in file transfer throughput when traffic flows through the bridge compared to uplinking the switches directly with a Cat5 cable.
Also, there was no noticeable increase in delay nor packet loss. VoIP traffic was transmitted flawlessly even when the bridge was under heavy load.
When the connection was interrupted (e.g. by disturbing the laser light), data transfer stops and packets are lost, however, the connection recovers very quickly when the distortion is removed.
It appears that under normal operating conditions, the bridge in fact behaves like a cable does (except that it is not limited to 100m).
Vendor
Contact
For more information, please contact the vendor directly.