Google spinout Taara launches wireless optical link planner

Taara, a manufacturer of wireless optical communication systems, has announced the launch of Taara Link Planner, which it says is the industry’s first link planning product developed specifically for next-generation free-space optical communications.

Taara Link Planner is the result of what the company says is nearly a decade of research and development originating at X, Google’s Moonshot Factory, creating 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.

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 deployable terminals. By entering an address or coordinates, or by placing link endpoints manually on a map, users can assess link distance, identify potential line-of-sight obstructions, adjust mounting heights and estimate expected availability based on local atmospheric conditions. Taara's internal modelling currently shows availability with about 1% accuracy of the predictions on average, when local weather data is available and terminals are installed to specification.

“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.”

Wireless optical communication uses narrow, invisible beams of light to deliver high-capacity connectivity through the air. Unlike RF systems, it operates in unlicensed optical spectrum and avoids many of the congestion, licensing, disruption and costs associated with traditional wireless infrastructure and fibre deployments. Because wireless optical communications transmit data using highly focused beams of light, network planning involves different environmental and atmospheric considerations than traditional RF systems. Taara Link Planner has been designed specifically with those optical characteristics in mind.

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

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