Taara launches link planner for wireless optical communications

Google X spin-out Taara has announced the launch of Taara Link Planner, a link planning product developed for next-generation free-space optical communications.

Taara Link Planner brings nearly a decade of research and development originating at X into a publicly accessible platform for network operators, infrastructure teams, and network planners. Its models have been validated against one of the largest real-world datasets on free-space optical links ever assembled, drawing on deployments and atmospheric observations spanning diverse geographies, climates, and operating conditions around the world, according to a press release.

The platform allows users to plan deployments of Taara Lightbridge, the company’s wireless optical communications technology, which uses narrow, invisible beams of light to deliver high-capacity connectivity through the air between two fixed and easily deployable terminals.  

“Over the last decade, our deployments from dense cities and remote communities to some of the world’s most demanding atmospheric conditions have taught us how light behaves in the real world,” said Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Founder and CEO of Taara. “Taara Link Planner brings that body of research together in a product that operators everywhere can use. It gives free-space optical communications the kind of dedicated planning capability that established network technologies have relied on for years, and represents an important step towards making light a mainstream part of global connectivity.”

Taara’s availability methodology estimates whether a link can send traffic error-free by modeling atmospheric parameters, terminal design, and link margin. The models account for factors including fog, haze, rain, dust, temperature, humidity, turbulence, wind, and vibration, the press release said.

“Taara Link Planner turns Taara’s field experience and availability modeling into a practical planning environment, helping operators evaluate links with much greater confidence before anything is installed,” said Devin Brinkley, SVP of Engineering at Taara.