Welcome back to the Solution Series brought to you by DoubleRadius and hosted by, yours truly, Jeff Holdenrid.
Holdenrid: Today we have a great guest here from positron, Jeff Clement thanks for being here. Before we get into Positron I want to know if you can give me your background a little bit; where did you come from and how did you end up at Positron?
Clement: I am a 20 year network engineer, I started at the lower end of things. I really got into hospitality tech and had 15 years of that specializing in IPTV, enterprise deployments, large properties, things of that nature. Most recently I was in a start-up adventure where we brought Amazon Alexa in hotel rooms.
Holdenrid: That’s exciting! For those who do not know, Jeff and I have been talking for a little bit now. I got a chance to actually meet him face-to-face at the HITEC hospitality show in Orlando. That was a great event with a lot of big names, actually Alexa was in the booth right next to us. So, let’s talk about Positron. Can you give me in a real Laymans terms of what solutions Positron offers?
Clement: Positron is a 50 year old company, we have been predominantly in the carrier side of the business pioneering things such as media cell backbone and enterprise switching. About five years ago we developed a product based on G.HN (Gigabit Home Network). Basically what that allows is to reuse existing cables inside Brownfield buildings and provide Gigabit services. That could be coax, CAT3 or CAT5 to extend the life of that technology. What our GAM product does is it wraps an ethernet switch, a carrier grade ethernet switch, around the technology allowing you to manage multiple VLANs, DHCP, several different parts of a network that a standard ethernet switch would do, but basically utilizing the technology of G.HN to produce it over coax or CAT3 or CAT5
Holdenrid: You're talking about existing cables like CAT3, CAT5, or even coax. Is there anything special that has to be done with those, is that what is usually used, are there certain types that work and some that don’t? If you are coax or CAT3 you are good to go?
Clement: Yeah. The great thing about this tech is that it’s really easy to implement, and you don’t have to change the existing network. Oftentimes with a product such as NDAC, I am going to go over this as a coax world. You have to re-balance the network, you’re constantly looking at signal levels, because that’s important. The way G.HN works is we are sending tones from 5 to 200 MGHz on the very low end of the spectrum, that goes over the twisted pair as well. What that allows us to do is not worry about how much loss isn't coming across that. For example, on a 24 port GAM, which has 24 ports and each one of those has a coaxial output, we can support up to 16 end devices on each port. Theoretically, in a perfect network where there is no amplification, we can serve up to 384 end units with one 24 port GAM and still provide gig service to all of those units.
Holdenrid: I can see where there is a big play in the NDU space. Is this something that just only works with in-building applications, or could do this for a community, an assisted-living, or maybe even a gated neighborhood?
Clement: You hit one of our specialties, when we are able to go into a garden style or campus style environment we really excel. It’s not only that we are providing in-building but we can extend fiber where fiber doesn’t need to be retrenched with existing hardlines. Let’s say you have an RG 11 cable, or an infrastructure that is connecting all of the buildings, we daisy-chain our GAMs and reuse one of the ports on them as a backbone to deliver that service across that hardline. It is like a hub-and-spoke topology but it reduces the need to go in and re-trench that fiber. Of course we always use fiber where it is available. We have 2 SFP+ ports that are 10gbt capable, but where it is not we are able to extend that gigabit service across an older infrastructure such as that.
Holdenrid: When you talk about the products today what does the hardware architecture look like?
Clement: It is really a 2-part where you have your head-end, which is the GAM (G.HM Access Multiplexer), that’s basically our ethernet switch that is using the G.HM technology. From there you enter into the traditional coax or CAT3 network, based on the different product sets. The only difference between the 2 product sets is one has coax and one has CAT3 as an output. On the other end of that we do have a CPE or an end point, we call that our G1000 series. Based on how many ports you want we have a 1 port that is providing 1 ethernet port on either the coax or the CAT3, we also have a 2 port version, and a 2 port power over the ethernet. That is where it gets interesting when you are trying to do property wide Wi-Fi in an enterprise way. You can provide power to your access point, it is a full VLAN trunk as well, on that port, so it supports things like DPSK that are necessary for doing a complete managed Wi-Fi solution across the campus. The second port is typically used for either voice over IP or IPTV. What’s really cool about this solution is we’re able to go through a transitionary period. For example, if an MDU space or a hotel is going through the transition from Legacy TV, where it is still utilizing that coaxial cable, we have a plan and a built-in spectrum analyzer so we can find out where those channels are lined. If they do get into the 5 MHz to 200 MHz range we can notch out that range to ensure that Legacy TV is still functioning. We do give up a little bit on the reach, but we can still hit a gigabit at 1500 feet, even if we are notching out 20 MHz of bandwidth. When you look at the breadth of things and the life additions that you are usually running cable are well within normal range of being able to serve that gigabit service out. When you move away from that Legacy TV, you can now go room by room because you’re simply just taking that secondary ethernet port, plugging that into the set top box or into the TV set, and you don't have to take segments of the network offline to reutilize that service. What we are finding is our LSPs and our installers are loving that because now they can go at their own pace. Sometimes even the property management can do that. It is as easy as plugging it back in instead of having a support engineer there at all times supporting the project.
Holdenrid: So that brings up 2 big points, can you coexist with other services today?
Clement: Absolutely.
Holdenrid: Having a POE outport and being able to tie it to a WAP is huge in a multi dwelling. I think about our wisps and how they’re bringing broadway in areas. In the southeast where they have all these old colonial style neighborhoods or towns with government buildings and enterprise buildings that are old architecture that they don’t want to change and being able to use the existing cabling that is already in place so not have spent a fortune on renovation, cable-pulls, new cable-pulls is great! Are the speeds you are providing half-duplex or full-duplex?
Clement: Full-duplex. That is a big differentiator between us and a DOCSIS solution, or even a BDSLT5 solution. It is fully asymmetrical, we are gigabit up and gigabit down. That is the max. Each one of the G.HM ports actually support up to 1.7 gigabits asymmetrically. Based on how many end-ports you are hanging off of that we can dynamically manage the bandwidth across it. For example, if we have 8 different end-points off of 1 G.HM port we are monitoring that to ensure the subscriber, or the end user, is getting what they subscribed to. If you subscribe to a 500 up and a 500 down service and they are pulling a download we are going to prioritize that traffic to them. There is a very little chance there is going to be all 8 of those subscribers asking for that bandwidth. So, to the end user they are going to get those speeds as they need it and it fills their needs, just as a smts would on the DOCSIS side. Having said that, we are providing a higher service, a higher level of bandwidth, which makes it much easier to manage at that point where there are definitely some downfalls on teh upstream for DOCSIS.
Holdenrid: Based on that information can you do rate limiting?
Clement: Absolutely. Typically on the hotel side that is handled by either the wireless controller or the gateway that is on property, or the splash page. But in the MDU space this is one of our most used features being able to, basically through our APIs, have a portal login. If somebody signs up for service (250 up, 250 down) they can actually provision that device through our APIs and send that subscriber limiting that modem. As soon as they sign up they are authorized, the payment goes through, it’ll light up that end-point to provide that 250 up and 250 down.
Holdenrid: Obviously this is definitely a key in the hospitality and MDU space. I’ve had so many conversations over the years with people where this would have been a perfect fit, and I honestly didn't know about it. I’m glad we have met and are talking. So, Outside of that space what do you see are your biggest driver deployments today?
Clement: Student living is absolutely huge, universities where they have campus style apartment complexes. Kids these days want their bandwidth, this provides using that existing space without having to cable. Also, Senior living is also huge. Typically a lot of those buildings are older and were not built for that infrastructure. For an ownership group to say this much in investments for recabling doesn’t make sense but, believe it or not, seniors these days are getting online and as the generation younger and younger (or technologically younger and younger) they are going to want that bandwidth. Even in Corporate America, you have these huge buildings and high-rises where it is just too much to re-cable and to re-get that internet out. It's a perfect scenario for us to come in and provide the solution to get gigabytes to each one of those endpoints as well.
Holdenrid: That’s great information. We have been doing a lot with Wi-Fi and Enterprise Wi-Fi and I remember some of our clients used to talk about how the residence would be like 2 or 3 devices, but talking to them more recently they up to about 16 to 20 devices per resident. All the dynamics have changed.
Clement: As the technology gets easier and more accessible the more bandwidth is needed in accessibility. That's only going to get greater.
Holdenrid: What do you see positron doing with the solutions you're offering, where do you see them going over the next 1-3 years?
Clement: Over the next 1-3 years we have a very aggressive plan to work from the carrier level down to the ownership groups, franchisees of hotels to get them educated on the technology. Really right now we are in our evangelist stage. We are telling the world about G.HM and the benefits of it. As you said Jeff, not a lot of people know about it. The more you research you learn that it just came out in 2018, but the possibilities are endless. This is only wave two of the technology, wave three is coming out with the possibility of getting us up to 10 gigabytes over this existing 80 year cable called coax, which is absolutely amazing. Those guys designed shielded cable that has incredible bandwidth that can go across it and we’re just opening that up across that cable. Where we see ourselves is really pushing in on all sides of the market, but the most important is partnerships. Getting the WISPs, LSPs, and people out there smart about this technology so it can reduce your sales cycle. If there ever has been a blocker in this day and age it has been recabling, the cost of going into those walls, putting ethernet, bringing GPON in. Especially in those brown fields. Now we have a solution that could be ⅙ of the cost and we can give you the same speeds as if you were to recable? What is stopping them now? It is not only a performance game, it is also a pricing game when you talk about this product, it is really exciting.
Holdenrid: The other side of that you could even look at the supply chain for cabling and work staff, this gives you the ability to use what is in place at a cost-effective way without investing a ton of money and a ton of lead time, your doing something today and getting it up and running at a much faster pace.
Clement: I’m actually going to record you because that was the perfect way to say it.
Holdenrid: I say the same thing with our WISPs, we have a ton of people who are deploying fiber, but what does it take? It takes 1-2 years. But you can deploy wireless now. It is the same thing here, you are bringing connectivity to your clients. You need to look 1 step further, how do you become sticky? Here is a way to use your existing buildings that maybe can not do new cabling, but now you have offered a service all the way to the laptop, or to the resident. Same thing with Wi-Fi, I love the POE out, to be able to put that to a WAP and supply Wi-Fi to those residents with a wall plate, a ceiling mount, etc, Those are just huge. You could probably even do video surveillance with that.
Clement: Absolutely. Anything that is IP based we can do. One of the coolest things that we were talking about that really caught my mind is what we are really doing. We are bringing fiber to the economical point. The economical point being; it doesn't matter how that's delivered, we are still providing that same service without going through those doors. That is the point. You are getting the same spot as fiber and I'm getting it in an economically feasible way to do it without disrupting the infrastructure of the plan.
There is something to be said about that. We can re-fiber, put gpon in the entire hotel, restructure cable in CAT-6 .. What’s the cost? But, what is the overall cost when you are entering into every one of those rooms, goin into those walls, pulling the cable, disrupting the guests, etc? Especially in hospitality. You are losing revenue every day that the room is down. If we can be in and out of that room in 3 minutes, as opposed to 3 days or 3 weeks, there is a huge economical impact on that. Especially when you probably have to go through permitting to refiber, that could take 100 more delays or so. All we are doing is using the same old cable that is behind 95 percent of tvs in America right now.
Holdenrid: That is a bunch of great information. Is there anything else that you want to add that we didn’t cover over today?
Clement: I think you know the key take-a-ways about Positron; we manufacture everything in Canada, we use chip sets that are in our warehouse, but we are very proud of our manufacturing process. Also, the back end of our technology we have full JSON API support. We can pull that into any of your monitoring softwares. We have an SNMP trap available and you can also manage the POE port as well. If there is a problem with the AP through interface, or even through APIS, you can bounce that POE port. Just some of the cool things. We are truely a networking company and we have had a lot of experience with what the Enterprise Networks need, we are just taking that and using a different medium and delivering that.
Holdenrid: This is really great stuff, thank you Jeff for being here. To our viewers out there, you can reach out to us, reach out to Jeff (jclement@positronaccess.com). Ask questions, we would love to talk to you more about this. Your sales reps here at Doubleradius will get me on the phone and I will be glad to give you guys more about this solution and how it fits into your network.
