Lambda

Hospitals & Healthcare

Increase Network Bandwidth and Efficiently Support Secure Digital Critical Care Needs for Hospital and Healthcare Services

Fiber optics unifies services and networks while reducing costs, increasing secure Healthcare facilities have undergone rapid changes in recent years, but their local area networks that utilize copper-based LANs have remained the same in terms of equipment, cabling and network architecture for a decade or longer.

It is time for healthcare LANs to evolve to address high-bandwidth needs and the wireless device explosion, ensure greater stability through constant availability and provide strict QoS in support of their mission-critical services. A better network for critical medical services Optical LANs are a better network alternative that can meet and exceed the needs of ambulatory, behavioral, critical access, hospital, laboratory and long-term healthcare facilities for the next 30 years because they address the specific needs of healthcare facilities:

1. More bandwidth over long-lasting fiber optic cabling
2. Space savings
3. Ability to meet or exceed sustainability initiatives
4. Services and network convergence, including wireless
5. Superior stability
6. Increased security

Benefits of fiber optic cabling in healthcare facilities

An Optical LAN infrastructure uses fiber optic cabling, which provides bandwidth measured in terabytes. By adopting fiber, versus traditional copper cabling, healthcare facilities get:

1.Better bandwidth capacity
2.Greater Gigabit Ethernet access density with far less cabling
3.Reduced impact of electromagnetic interference (EMI)
4.Flexibility for network moves, adds and changes
5.Less intrusive retrofits, expansions and upgrades

Better bandwidth capacity

Historically, copper cabling has not kept pace with the bandwidth demands of healthcare facilities. Over the past decade, CATx copper cabling standards have changed from CAT3 all the way to CAT8, which is currently being defined. Over these five generations, healthcare facilities were expected to upgrade to the next generation, wasting money and disrupting operations, all in an effort to support data speeds.

Fiber optic cabling, such as single-mode fiber (SMF), has no theoretical bandwidth limit. Today, SMF has proven to support 101 Tbps,1 but that ceiling is only an artificial limit based on the electronic transmission technology available today. Since the Healthcare Facilities Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard (TIA-1179) recommends using the highest-performing cable media whenever possible, SMF is clearly the right choice.

Reduced impact of electromagnetic interference

In delivering voice, video, data, security, automation, environmental and wireless services, fiber optic cabling has no EMI, electromagnetic pulse (EMP) or crosstalk. Fiber is noncorrosive, has no spark/fire hazards and no magnetic issues. For healthcare facilities, fiber is the best choice where exposure to magnetic fields, radiation and chemicals is expected throughout the building and its extended campus. Fewer cables are required with Optical LAN. Moreover, there is no need to engineer additional cable shielding and/or extend the length of cables to reroute around problematic hospital areas. Finally, modern healthcare facilities are moving toward using mobile diagnostic equipment that uplinks to the LAN via Wi-Fi. In the past, copper cabling was rerouted around X-ray, ultrasound, cardiology and radiology equipment, but if medical diagnostic equipment is portable, then electrical interference needs to be taken into consideration throughout the entire healthcare facility.

Less plastics and PVCs

With less quantity, smaller size and shorter lengths of fiber optic cabling and converged network services, Optical LAN can reduce plastics associated with the cabling infrastructure measuring in thousand of pounds. Plastics, PVCs and lead contribute to fire and smoke hazards in buildings.

Relative to sustainability goals, fiber optics surpasses copper cabling for the following reasons:

Copper is a precious metal, and its mining practices have poor environmental record. Copper cable has a greater quantity of plastics and PVC than SMF. Old copper cables and abandoned copper cables can contain lead. Plastics, PVCs and lead contribute to indoor environmental hazards.

Flexibility for network moves, adds and changes

Hospital equipment, resources and staff need to be very mobile by nature. When a move, add or change (MAC) is needed, fiber optic cabling provides better flexibility and makes the process much easier. Optical LANs are managed centrally through element management software (EMS), so daily IT change orders are executed as global keystrokes at a centrally located desktop. Central management eliminates many steps. Changes do not require the IT staff to physically reprovision geographically disparate LAN equipment at the main data center, treatment rooms or other areas of the facility.

Less intrusive retrofits, expansions and upgrades

If network retrofit, expansion and upgrades are needed, fiber reduces much of the expense and operational impact. For future network upgrades, today’s SMF cable supports 1 GbE, 10 GbE, 40 GbE, 100 GbE and wave-division multiplexing technologies, so there is a high probability that the SMF LAN infrastructure will support all future healthcare demands and will not need to be touched after initial installation.

The benefits of LAMBDA Optical LANs for healthcare facilities:

Fiber optic cable has no theoretical bandwidth ceiling and no known obsolescence horizon
Occupies 90% less space yet has four times greater GbE density and 300 times greater reach
Smaller footprint means more space for critical care and beds
Healthcare and IT staff require less initial training and no ongoing certification
Reduces cabling plastics by thousands of pounds
Converges critical care services, patient entertainment and all wireless traffic onto one fiber optical network with service segmentation, military-grade security, low-latency transmission and strict Quality of Service (QoS)
Reduces or eliminates HEPA tenting, which is intrusive,disruptive and expensive for operations
Mobile diagnostic medical equipment benefits from fiber’s immunity to electromagnetic interference