When Local Area Networks (LANs) are implemented, there always seem to be one or more stations which are isolated from where the 'action is,' one or more stations which are far from the Ethernet hub. These isolated stations may be in a separate building from the Ethernet hub or they may even be across an industrial campus. Including these isolated stations in the LAN presents a real 'headache' when it is implemented using 10Base-T, twisted pair, copper cable, technology. The maximum distance, which really is set by the CSMA cable sharing protocol, is only 100 meters. This hardly allows including isolated stations in the LAN.

The Model 373 is just the right 'pain killer' to end this 'headache.' It will allow you to connect an isolated station to the LAN using low cost, multi-mode, fiber optic cable. While meeting the CSMA requirements, the low cost, multi-mode, fiber optic cable allows the isolated stations to be extended a full 2 km from the hub. Of course, you will need a Model 373 at isolated station end to convert the electrical signal to/from copper to light for fiber optic transmission. You will also need another Model 373 at the hub end to do the same conversion-unless the hub has this already built-in. This is just like the illustration shows. Using the Model 373 allows you to get significant range extension with your LAN.

The conversion is fully 10Base-FL compatible so you can communicate with another vendor's 10Base-FL compatible equipment, having a truly open architecture. You will get some additional side benefits from using fiber optic cable to do the LAN extension. You will become immune to interference caused by lightning strikes - a real problem when you are transmitting LAN signals between buildings. You will also have total electrical isolation with the fiber optic cable and not have to worry about grounding problems. This is still another 'headache' when you have different elements of a network connected to different physical grounds, as often happens when you go between buildings.