At 07:33 PM 9/15/02 -0500, Neil Johnson wrote:

http://www.dominionlaser.com

Their big claim to fame is that the electronics (including the laser) are connected to an optical "antenna" by fiber so that the electronics don't have to be exposed to the elements.

Moderately clever.

They claim that their technology can cut through all but 100% fog, when the rain is falling at 6in/hr etc. etc (This is where the vague comments about being able to communicate between ships in a storm without being detected by DF equipment were made).

Is this choice of IR wavelength or coding techniques or big honking optics? Or all of the above?

The stuff is pretty expensive, however ($ 10K).

AT&T IIRC had something similar, for building point to point. I think the alignment was a bitch, and the cost was similar to that $10K, and wireless overran that niche. (Ergo cheapness via volume isn't going to happen.) A friend of mine was interested in using IRDA to cross a street to leach off a link (with permission). He didn't try it AFAIK. Same concept though.