Sumitomo’s FutureFLEX Fiber Assists National Library of Medicine
Research Triangle Park, NC, March 10, 2009 – Sumitomo Electric Lightwave today announced the deployment of its FutureFLEX® Air-Blown Fiber® system at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world’s largest medical library and the information and research arm of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in all areas of biomedicine and health care.
A growing collection of over 16 million MEDLINE articles and millions of other resources accessed through the web at www.nlm.nih.gov by approximately 900 million searches per year by health professionals, scientists, librarians, and the public, has necessitated NLM to expand its 2 data centers and storage capacity. The NLM data centers also support the ongoing research and development of the National Center for Biomedical Communications and the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which utilize high-bandwidth video and virtual reality to projects including telemedicine, The Visible Human Project and other initiatives, resulting in a large digital image library. Other areas supported by the data centers are the Grant Programs division and the Toxicology and Environmental Health Program.
The expansion of the data centers and support of the growing bandwidth needs of researchers require a reliable, immediately scalable, non-obtrusive, and cost effective fiber optic backbone infrastructure. Unlike conventional fiber optic infrastructures where fiber optic cables are pulled to provide sufficient bandwidth and capacity for network moves, adds, and changes, FutureFLEX Air-blown Fiber allows NLM to blow any type and amount of fiber in and out of the IT network quickly and easily between and within buildings on an as needed basis. This eliminates the need and expense of dark fiber and allows NLM to respond to bandwidth requirements and any network changes in real-time. NLM can also turnaround network projects in 70 to 90 % less time and expense once the tube infrastructure is in place.
“I recommended blown fiber technology because it’s a good infrastructure investment and it allows us to respond faster to the needs of the health community, researchers, and publics that NLM serves,” says Vic Previll, Computer Science Corporation engineer. “It is also easy and fast to install, provides minimum or no network downtime, and eliminates disruption to the Library building, visitors, and researchers since network adds, moves and changes are completed behind the scenes, unlike conventional cabling systems that require re-entering ceilings and walls.”
The FutureFLEX Air-blown Fiber system is RoHS compliant and encompasses other green attributes. Unlike conventional fiber optic cable, fiber bundles can be blown out of the fiber pathway undamaged and may be immediately recycled and reused in the network, creating a continuously renewable and sustainable network infrastructure with no end to its life cycle. Network upgrades, expansions, and reconfigurations require no construction work, thereby eliminating waste and debris, as well as hazardous abandoned cable, unused dark fiber, and other environmentally compromising materials. Moreover, a blown fiber infrastructure takes up less building space and provides greater capacity, thereby allowing HVAC and other energy systems to operate with unobstructed air flow.
“With the Obama administration’s emphasis on green technology for federal buildings, the Air-blown Fiber system provides a means to continue further our commitment to environmental responsibility,” comments Wesley Russell, section head of engineering at NLM. “We can also budget project to project with Air-Blown Fiber and save significant costs with network changes, thereby allowing us to be fiscally responsible, as well.”
The targeted completion date for the data centers’ expansion and upgrade, as well as the new Air-blown Fiber backbone infrastructure, is June – July 2009.
Sumitomo fiber optic fusion splicers and fiber cleavers available for immediate purchase.
