Taara has launched Taara Link Planner, a link planning tool for wireless optical communications aimed at network operators and planners.
The product is designed to help users plan deployments for Taara's Lightbridge system, which sends data through the air using narrow beams of light between fixed terminals. Users can enter an address or coordinates, or place link endpoints on a map, to assess link distance, identify line-of-sight obstructions, adjust mounting heights, and estimate expected availability based on local atmospheric conditions.
Taara emerged from X, Google's Moonshot Factory. The planning platform draws on nearly a decade of research and development, along with deployment and atmospheric data gathered across more than 20 countries. Its models have been validated against what the company described as one of the largest real-world datasets assembled on active free-space optical links.
The launch addresses a practical issue for operators considering alternatives to fibre and conventional wireless systems. Because optical links use light rather than radio signals, planning depends on different environmental factors than radiofrequency network design.
According to Taara, its availability methodology models whether a link can carry traffic without errors using atmospheric parameters, terminal design, and link margin. The models account for fog, haze, rain, dust, temperature, humidity, turbulence, wind, and vibration.
Taara said its internal modelling shows availability predictions are accurate to within about 1% on average when local weather data is available and terminals are installed to specification. Where weather station data is limited, the system uses broader climate and atmospheric modelling to support planning estimates.
Planning focus
The tool is aimed at a wide range of users, from large telecoms operators with dedicated network planning teams to local service providers whose field engineers may plan links directly. It provides a visual interface for testing prospective sites and reviewing estimated performance over the year.
Mahesh Krishnaswamy outlined the reasoning behind the product launch.
"Over the last decade, our deployments from dense cities and remote communities to some of the world's most demanding atmospheric conditions have taught us how light behaves in the real world," said Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Taara.
"Taara Link Planner brings that body of research together in a product that operators everywhere can use. It gives free-space optical communications the kind of dedicated planning capability that established network technologies have relied on for years, and represents an important step towards making light a mainstream part of global connectivity," Krishnaswamy said.
Wireless optical communications have drawn interest from operators looking to add network capacity without waiting for new fibre construction. Lightbridge is already deployed in more than 20 countries with operators including T-Mobile, Airtel, Digicel, Liquid, and SoftBank across urban, rural, and hard-to-reach areas.
Taara said earlier studies from its work at X used historical visibility data to examine how light-based links perform across different geographies. Those studies found that, in weather conditions representative of average large cities in the US and UK, annual average link availability would exceed 95% over distances of up to 10 km and surpass 99% in many regions of interest.
Operator question
Devin Brinkley said the central issue for customers has long been link reliability.
"Availability has always been the question operators ask first about wireless optical communications," said Devin Brinkley, Senior Vice President of Engineering, Taara.
"The answer can't come from radio models alone, because optical links are dominated by different physical phenomena. Taara Link Planner turns Taara's field experience and availability modeling into a practical planning environment, helping operators evaluate links with much greater confidence before anything is installed," Brinkley said.
The release follows Taara's introduction of a separate total cost of ownership calculator aimed at helping network teams compare the economics of different connectivity options. Together, the products reflect the company's effort to build a broader set of software tools around its light-based network hardware.
Taara said Lightbridge can be deployed between two fixed terminals and is intended to provide fibre-like speeds without the civil engineering work required to lay physical lines. The new planner focuses on constraints specific to optical transmission, particularly the need for clear line of sight and the effect of local weather conditions on service availability.
For operators weighing network expansion in dense cities, remote communities, or areas where fibre builds are slow, the product adds a dedicated planning layer for a transmission method that has typically sat outside mainstream network design software.