EPOCH 80GHz Point-to-Point Case Study

Epoch Design. As a Creative and Strategic Design Consultancy specialising in FMCG brands, it's their job to give their clients a competitive advantage in a global marketplace.

The Problem

The company has two offices located in central Bristol that are separated by a few buildings. Back in 2011 Epoch wanted to extend the LAN across both the sites and this was achieved by using a free space optics solution installed by DigitalAir. In 2011 FSO was a cost-effective way to install a gigabit low latency solution. Fast forward to 2018 the company has grown, and more staff relocated to the second building. The existing laser in place is now end of life and as a result is not supported from a hardware perspective and it is not meeting the throughput requirements of their workforce. FSO is no longer the go to solution for gigabit low latency connectivity. To add to the complications of installing a suitable solution, both sites are listed buildings and would need to be installed in a manner that they would not be visible from the street level. DigitalAir’s survey also detected potential hazards working environments such as the roofs edges being un-protected.

The Solution

Requiring a reliable and super high availability solution with Gigabit speeds, DigitalAir proposed and installed an E-Band 80GHz, 5 Gbps radio link from Siklu.

The EH-5500-FD offers up to 5Gbps all though you can obtain it with a 2 Gbps licence. DigitalAir had to implement a man safe system to be able to deliver a safe working environment for the engineers and be creative with the radio mounting solution to meet the regulations for the listed buildings.

To compliment the radio link service and to provide piece of mind for the customer, DigitalAir's Gold standard support package was also purchased, consisting of UK based service desk support, advanced hardware replacement, proactive remote monitoring, quarterly reports on link usage, 6 monthly remote health checks and future trade up discount.

The outcome

The customer now has multi-gigabit connectivity to their satellite office, which has recently been refurbished allowing them to re-locate more design staff from their main office. Since the installation in April 2018, the link has had no down time.