Back to Company SearchSBIR Success Story – Telescent Inc.
Telescent's large-scale, low-loss robotic patch-panel system brings automation to the fiber layer of data center and optical networks...
Company
Portfolio Data
Telescent Inc.
Address
12815 Coral Tree PlaceSanta Monica, CA, 90066-7018
USA
UEI: JMMPGFAPNYF4
Number of Employees: 3
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
SBIR/STTR Involvement
Year of first award: 2009
4
Phase I Awards
5
Phase II Awards
125%
Conversion Rate
$454,457
Phase I Dollars
$4,417,467
Phase II Dollars
$4,871,924
Total Awarded
Success Stories
See what our company has achieved through SBIR/STTR funding.
Awards
Lights Out Data Centers With AutoPHY Automated Network Management Service
Amount: $1,000,000 Topic: 01a
The explosive growth of Internet commerce, video and social networking is straining the efficiency and reliability of today’s cloud computing networks. The large-scale AutoPHY automated management service will enable the physical network infrastructure to be managed in an efficient, agile, programmable fashion that benefits the US economy and all users of the Internet.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2017
DOE
Lights Out Data Centers with AutoPHY Automated Network Management Service
Amount: $155,000 Topic: 01a
This Small Business Innovation Research proposal presents AutoPHY, an autonomous, virtualized layer 0 interconnection service for data centers and cloud computing. The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) stack representing the Internet infrastructure consists of layers 0 to 7. Today all layers can be automatically configured and managed through software, with the exception of the physical interconnection layer 0, which is still managed manually. More than 60% of data center outages are now attributed to human errors occurring at layer 0. The AutoPHY service will for the first time automate the management of the millions of physical interconnects in a typical network, at a scale and cost previously impossible. Unique robotic fiber optic cross-connect hardware married with sophisticated Knots and Braids Switching (KBS) algorithms enable a breakthrough switch technology that, for the first time, scales in complexity as N, the number of ports, rather than N2. This technology offers unprecedented capabilities in network provisioning, emergency failover, network partitioning and bandwidth grooming for flexible management of network interconnections at scale, with seamless federation across geographically dispersed, separately managed centers. AutoPHY improves the flexibility and simplicity of cloud network management, secures networks from human error, and enables a scalable, efficient and resilient network infrastructure. The broader impact of this project includes the advancement of standards-based network infrastructure and open source Software-Defined Networking (SDN) networking technologies, and more specifically the development of hardened physical layer management tools and services for deployment in production multi-tenant and mega data centers. The technology to dynamically control and optimize the physical network topology will be used by the AutoPHY global manager, in coordination with SDN controllers, to build high level network services including Automated Smart-Hands and Automated Failover. AutoPHY will reduce cross-connect and provisioning times from days to minutes and eliminate the errors resulting from manual intervention. These developments will be a significant contribution to the same important goals that drive the SDN movement. Whereas current SDN efforts are focused on layers 2 and 3 of the network, AutoPHY enables software programmability to be cost-effectively extended to the physical network topology. By improving the economics and performance of layer 0 at the cloud scale, AutoPHY has the potential to transform cloud computing through higher utilization and support the broader Department of Energy mission.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2014
DOE
Lights Out Data Centers with AutoPHY Automated Network Management Service
Amount: $1,010,000 Topic: 01a
This Small Business Innovation Research proposal presents AutoPHY, an autonomous, virtualized layer 0 interconnection service for data centers and cloud computing. The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) stack representing the Internet infrastructure consists of layers 0 to 7. Today all layers can be automatically configured and managed through software, with the exception of the physical interconnection layer 0, which is still managed manually. More than 60% of data center outages are now attributed to human errors occurring at layer 0. The AutoPHY service will for the first time automate the management of the millions of physical interconnects in a typical network, at a scale and cost previously impossible. Unique robotic fiber optic cross-connect hardware married with sophisticated Knots and Braids Switching (KBS) algorithms enable a breakthrough switch technology that, for the first time, scales in complexity as N, the number of ports, rather than N2. This technology offers unprecedented capabilities in network provisioning, emergency failover, network partitioning and bandwidth grooming for flexible management of network interconnections at scale, with seamless federation across geographically dispersed, separately managed centers. AutoPHY improves the flexibility and simplicity of cloud network management, secures networks from human error, and enables a scalable, efficient and resilient network infrastructure. The broader impact of this project includes the advancement of standards-based network infrastructure and open source Software-Defined Networking (SDN) networking technologies, and more specifically the development of hardened physical layer management tools and services for deployment in production multi-tenant and mega data centers. The technology to dynamically control and optimize the physical network topology will be used by the AutoPHY global manager, in coordination with SDN controllers, to build high level network services including Automated Smart-Hands and Automated Failover. AutoPHY will reduce cross-connect and provisioning times from days to minutes and eliminate the errors resulting from manual intervention. These developments will be a significant contribution to the same important goals that drive the SDN movement. Whereas current SDN efforts are focused on layers 2 and 3 of the network, AutoPHY enables software programmability to be cost-effectively extended to the physical network topology. By improving the economics and performance of layer 0 at the cloud scale, AutoPHY has the potential to transform cloud computing through higher utilization and support the broader Department of Energy mission.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2014
DOE
SBIR Phase II: Optical Detectors Based on Transparent Microwires and Nanowires
Amount: $407,660 Topic: Phase II
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop a new type of optical power monitor utilizing transparent microwires and nanowires patterned within a multi-layer anti-reflection coating. These "wires" are nanometer to micron wide traces defined within a transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) conductive layer. ITO typically absorbs 1 to 10% at visible and infrared wavelengths, depending on its thickness, and optical intensities greater than 1 mW/mm2 produce measureable localized heating. This temperature change induces a proportional resistance change that can be measured electronically. By inserting this detector in-line between fiber optic cables, the optical power of the internal signals can be measured without degrading the signal strength. Moreover, by reducing the dimensions of the trace to the nanometer scale, the detector also has the potential for high-speed operation with a bandwidth approaching GHz. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project includes new optical monitoring applications that were previously impossible or impractical. In one example, inexpensive and miniature optical monitors can now be integrated within the hundreds of millions of fiber optic interconnects produced annually for fiber optic communication systems. Advanced self-monitoring and self-diagnosing communication network architectures can be developed for Fiber-to-the-Home networks and data centers by transparently measuring the optical power through fiber optic junctions. This technology promises to reduce the cost to measure power within optical fibers by two orders of magnitude, and has the potential to be mass-produced and even inkjet printed on flexible plastic film, window glass, solar panels, mirrors, displays, or even on curved substrates such as light bulbs and lenses.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2011
NSF
Physical Layer Network Management Tools Based on Automated Fiber Optic Patch-Panels
Amount: $999,942 Topic: 52 d
Low cost, massively scalable, automated fiber optic patch-panels are the key network elements of the future, enabling software driven control, monitoring and mapping of the fiber optic physical network layer. Physical layer automation promises to dramatically improve the reliability and agility of high bandwidth communications services. Considering that the cost to operate today
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2010
DOE
RFID Overlay Network for Automated Discovery at the Physical Network Layer
Amount: $999,865 Topic: 52 d
Today
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2010
DOE
RFID Overlay Network for Automated Discovery at the Physical Network Layer
Amount: $99,808 Topic: 52 d
Fiber optic interconnections are currently invisible to network management systems and are difficult to manage and track. Today¿s network mapping tools do not provide visibility down to the level of individual physical network connections. This project will develop a radiofrequency identification (RFID) overlay network that will enable the automated discovery and configuration management of all physical fiber optic connections within a distributed communications network. The demonstration of this RFID overlay concept will require several technological developments: (1) the physical size of traditional passive RFID tags and the reader antenna must be reduced by an order of magnitude, in order to fit on connectors and connector receptacles; (2) the spatial discrimination for adjacent tags must be reduced to 5 mm to prevent readout ambiguity between closely spaced ports on networking equipment; and (3) the RFID reader system must be designed to interrogate tags automatically and remotely through composite fiber optic patchcords, eliminating the need for manual readout by technicians. This system will enable a new class of network management tools that automatically track and record the physical interconnect topology and alert administrators to unauthorized changes in the cabling configuration. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee The elevation of passive interconnects to manage network elements would reduce operating expenses and downtime by enabling massive numbers of distributed interconnections across federated networks to be monitored, discovered, and managed through software.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2009
DOE
Physical Layer Network Management Tools Based on Automated Fiber Optic Patch-Panels
Amount: $99,844 Topic: 52 d
The ability to automate network reconfiguration and testing would have profound economic benefits. The cost to operate today¿s networks exceeds 60% of the carriers¿ revenue and the staffing cost to manage data centers exceeds $200 billion per year. These expenses include the management and administration of millions of fiber connections in central offices, points-of-presence, and data centers. This project will develop physical network reconfiguration tools incorporating an all-fiber automated patch-panel system. The solution will be scalable, modular to >5,000 ports, and low cost, and will exhibit nearly zero insertion loss. Fiber interconnections will be arbitrarily reconfigured in a completely non-blocking fashion using compact robotics. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee The highly manual nature of current network management approaches demands a fleet of some 100,000 service vehicles in the U.S. alone and reduces the profitability, reliability, and agility of high bandwidth communications services. The fiber optic patch-panel system would enable a new class of network management tools to be realized for remote access and sharing of physical network assets across a distributed network.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2009
DOE
SBIR Phase I: Optical Detectors Based on Transparent Microwires and Nanowires on Plastic Film
Amount: $99,805 Topic: EL
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a new type of optical power monitor based on microwires and nanowires patterned within a transparent multi-layer anti-reflection coating. These wires are nanometer to micron wide traces patterned within an indium tin oxide (ITO) conductive layer. ITO typically absorbs 1 to 10% at visible and infrared wavelengths, depending on its thickness. Localized heating of ITO occurs when the optical intensity passing through the conductive trace exceeds about 1 mW/mm2. The temperature change produces a proportional resistance change that can be measured electronically. This detector samples and transmits light with nearly zero insertion loss. By incorporating this patterned ITO coating within traditional antireflection coatings and thin film interference coatings, novel detection schemes can be developed. Moreover, by reducing the dimensions of the trace to the nanometer scale, the detector also has the potential for high-speed operation with a bandwidth approaching GHz. The broader impacts/commercial potential of this project will be a detection technology that enables a wide range of new optical monitoring applications by eliminating costly and bulky assemblies. For instance, inexpensive and miniature optical monitors can potentially replace the ten million passive fiber optic connector adapters produced annually for fiber optic communication systems. By transparently measuring the optical power through fiber optic junctions in a low cost fashion, advanced self-monitoring and self-diagnosing communication network architectures can be realized for Fiber-to-the-Home and data centers. This technology promises to reduce the cost to measure power within optical fibers by two orders of magnitude. These detectors have the potential to be mass-produced on flexible plastic film, window glass, mirrors, or even on curved substrates such as light bulbs and lenses. This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2009
NSF