Writings from Justin Wilson
Some photos from a Siklu 80GHZ deployment in Downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. This was deployed by On-Ramp Indiana (https://www.ori.net). The problem being solved is moving video files around a network in order to get it to smart screens and projectors. This is a very urban area and wireless was pretty much the only option to get from building to building.
Siklu 80GHZ was on the shortlist due to the distances involved. Another consideration was the footprint of the equipment. The equipment had to be as low profile as possible.
Another needed aspect of this network was the ability to move traffic around at layer 2. Not all traffic is IP based in this type of network.
Equipment used
Ether Haul 1200FX
https://www.siklu.com/product/etherhaul-kilo-series/
Some technical Details
As you can see traffic is reasonably consistent in the 80-100 meg range. We needed a solution that did not slow down due to interference. A possible 10’s of thousands of visitors to this attraction in a weekend, reliability and performance were critical. When this was installed we did not know about COVID, but this is an attraction people can enjoy from their cars and social distancing. This use added to the visibility of this attraction, thus making the reliability even more crucial.
Articles about the finished product
https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/monument-circle-get-new-light-show-time-holidays/531-ef1819ca-5f27-4886-9283-17e481c33f39
On-Ramp Indiana Contacts www.ori.net 317.774.2100
We like to refer to Indianapolis, Indiana as an “NFL City” when explaining the connectivity and peering landscape. It is not a large network presence like Chicago or Ashburn but has enough networks to make it a place for great interconnects.
At the heart of Indianapolis is the Indy Telcom complex. www.indytelcom.com (currently down as of this writing). This is also referred to as the “Henry Street” complex because West Henry Street runs past several of the buildings. This is a large complex with many buildings on it.
One of the things many of our clients ask about is getting connectivity from building to building on the Indy Telcom campus. Lifeline Data Centers ( www.lifelinedatacenters.com ) operates a carrier hotel at 733 Henry. With at least 30 on-net carriers and access to many more 733 is the place to go for cross-connect connectivity in Indianapolis. We have been told by Indy Telcom the conduits between the buildings on the campus are 100% full. This makes connectivity challenging at best when going between buildings. The campus has lots of space, but the buildings are on islands if you wish to establish dark fiber cross-connects between buildings. Many carriers have lit services, but due to the ways many carriers provision things getting a strand, or even a wave is not possible. We do have some options from companies like Zayo or Lightedge for getting connectivity between buildings, but it is not like Chicago or other big Date centers. However, there is a solution for those looking for to establish interconnections. Lifeline also operates a facility at 401 North Shadeland, which is referred to as the EastGate facility. This facility is built on 41 acres, is FEDRAMP certified, and has a bunch of features. There is a dark fiber ring going between 733 and 401. This is ideal for folks looking for both co-location and connectivity. Servers and other infrastructure can be housed at Eastgate and connectivity can be pulled from 733. This solves the 100% full conduit issue with Indy Telcom. MidWest Internet Exchange ( www.midwest-ix.com ) is also on-net at both 401 and 733.
Another location where MidWest-IX is at is 365 Data Centers (http://www.365datacenters.com ) at 701 West Henry. 365 has a national footprint and thus draws some different clients than some of the other facilities. 365 operates Data centers in Tennessee, Michigan, New York, and others. MidWest has dark fiber over to 365 in order to bring them on their Indy fabric.
Another large presence at Henry Street is Lightbound ( www.lightbound.com ). They have a couple of large facilities. According to PeeringDB, only three carriers are in their 731 facility. However, their web-site lists 18+ carriers in their facilities. The web-site does not list these carriers.
I am a big fan of peeringdb for knowing who is at what facilities, where peering points are, and other geeky information. Many of the facilities in Indianapolis are not listed on peering DB. Some other Data Centers which we know about:
Zayo (www.zayo.com)
LightTower ( www.lightower.com )
Indiana Fiber Network (IFN) (https://ifncom.co/)
Online Tech ( www.onlinetech.com )
On the north side of Indianapolis, you have Expedient ( www.expedient.com ) in Carmel. Expedient says they have “dozens of on net carriers among all markets”. There are some other data centers in the Indianapolis Metro area. Data Cave in Columbus is within decent driving distance.
A cellular small Cell near the Indianapolis Metropolitan museum.