Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1192126
January/February/March 2020 I 57 alleviates healthcare organizations' resistance to above- ceiling work. When cabling work requires installers to remove ceiling tile, hospital staff must deploy a tent and a HEPA filter to protect nearby equipment. Strategic placement of the fiber-based LAN created enough capacity to support the next few generations of LAN speeds without having to pull out 80 percent of the cabling infrastructure. The team also was able to leverage that fiber infrastructure to support the all-fiber DAS. Upgrades to future generations of cellular technology will require only card changes in the data center rather than swapping out the infrastructure. It is estimated that POL may support the hospital's communications require- ments for the next 25 to 30 years. Within Guthrie Corning Hospital, POL now supports practically every communications service that the facility requires: data, VoIP, IP cameras, access control, building management systems, pneumatic tubes, Wi-Fi, and imag- ing. This includes the hospital's picture archiving and communications system (PACS), which distributes images to doctors within the hospital as well as to healthcare personnel in other locations. Hospital managers opted not to have any analog voice service. The only POTS connectivity available is for fax machines for which the hospital uses traditional hard-wired copper. ADDRESSING TODAY'S NEEDS AND TOMORROW'S DEMANDS Having the right LAN infrastructure in place is critical to all people in healthcare environments. Patient satisfaction rises when they know their care, in part, is provided for over a reliable, secure and high-performing network infra- structure. With the right LAN in place, patients and their families can access broadband services anywhere in the facilities via wired, Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity. At the same time, hospital administration benefits from the reduced operating costs of the simple, scalable fiber-based network. And, medical staff enjoys the reliable connec- tivity that powers the technologies, applications and health records upon which they rely to provide quality patient care. The passive optical LAN can unify healthcare services and networks while reducing costs, improving network reliability and increasing security. The solution offers unique benefits relative to HIPAA protocols, PCI compli- ance, infection control (e.g., reduce HEPA tenting) and ANSI/TIA-1179-A cabling. Network managers can provi- sion over fiber scalable interactive patient care, patient monitoring, entertainment, nurse call systems, clinical information, access control, security, surveillance, automa- tion, safety, environmental controls, CCTV, AV and all forms of video. It should be considered as a choice for full service hospitals that need reliable network coverage in areas, such as waiting rooms, nurse stations, patient rooms, exam rooms, emergency care, operating rooms, intensive care, recovery, diagnostics radiolo gy, the pharmacy, therapy rooms, cafeterias, administration and medical offices, and affiliated clinics. With new technologies entering the market every day, the list can go on and on. It is counterproductive and expensive to continue to deploy copper-based LANs, which have higher CapEx and OpEx costs, consume more energy and monopolize greater amounts of space; they are also less stable and can pose a security risk. This is why POL has become an important technology to consider for healthcare facilities striving to meet and exceed ICT expectations over the next 30 years. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: John Hoover is a senior product manager at Tellabs Access and serves as board director for APOLAN. Over the past 15 years, he has focused on early PON deployments, video implementations, wireless technologies, and most recently POL adoption for virtually every vertical industry. He is a graduate of California State University Long Beach with a major in business and a minor in economics. John can be reached at john.hoover@tellabs.com.