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Chapter 654 Experiment Advancement

The two old men were arguing inside, and the researchers from the two departments outside weren't doing much better.

Redwood City is located in the heart of the American South, where the March sun has lost the gentleness of early spring and carries a hint of the scorching heat of midsummer.

Dominic Reed, an engineer in the communications department, stood in front of the monitoring console, beads of sweat sliding down his temples and leaving clear marks on his fair skin.

He subconsciously raised his hand to wipe it, but his eyes were fixed on the waveform on the monitoring screen.

The blue waveform on the screen resembles an out-of-control snake, fluctuating up and down, representing the stability of signal transmission.

He sighed softly, a hint of numbness appearing on his face.

This marks their 37th debugging session of the bidirectional HFC network since the end of January, with the goal of achieving always-on broadband access that supports video-on-demand and high-speed internet access.

However, judging from the current signal stability, this experiment is destined to end in failure again.

This marks the 37th full-process debugging experiment since the project officially started at the end of January.

"Dominic, the data is in!" The sound of hurried footsteps broke the silence of the test site. Dave Coleman, another senior researcher in the communications department, strode over, clutching a newly printed test report in his hand. His brows were furrowed deeply. "The noise interference problem of the optical node has not been effectively controlled. The signal attenuation rate in the uplink band has reached 31.7%, far exceeding the acceptable threshold of 15%. Such performance is simply not feasible for commercial verification."

Dave laid the test report out on the console, pointing to a line graph on one page and adding, "The key is the uplink bandwidth bottleneck. We tried seven different tuning schemes, but the highest speed remained at 4.8Mbps, and we were unable to break through the target of 5Mbps."

He glanced around to make sure the other staff at the edge of the testing area were focused on their work before lowering his voice and muttering in dissatisfaction, "I really can't understand it. China Telecom has already acquired the broadband business of Telephone & Telegraph Group. Their ADSL technology is mature enough. Not to mention breaking through 5Mbps upload speed, even the download speed can be stable at 1.5Mbps. Why do we insist on sticking to HFC technology?"

"There are readily available solutions that can be implemented directly, but our coaxial broadband can't even achieve basic signal stability right now, which is a complete waste of time."

"What do you know?" Dominic turned to the side, his gaze sweeping over the various parameters on the test report. "Currently, the main market for telecommunications companies is concentrated in office buildings and business parks, where users are less sensitive to costs."

"But our goal is to reach every household, covering the civilian market in urban suburbs and rural areas."

"The core architecture of the HFC network is a fiber optic backbone network plus coaxial cable access. Fiber optics are responsible for backbone transmission, while coaxial cable handles the last mile of access. Compared to the end-to-end deployment of a pure fiber optic network, the cost of laying coaxial cable is at least 30% lower than that of fiber optics."

"Do you know what this 30% cost advantage means?" Dominic's voice unconsciously rose a few decibels. "The potential size of the US civilian broadband market exceeds three hundred billion US dollars, and a 30% cost advantage translates to a market space of hundreds of billions of dollars."

"Once we solve the current technical challenges, major American telecom operators will have no choice but to either adopt our HFC solution to seize the market at a lower cost, or stick to their existing technology and let their competitors gradually erode their market share."

"By then, Bell Equipment Manufacturing Company, as the technology provider, will receive a steady stream of patent licensing fees and equipment purchase orders."

His eyes sparkled with anticipation for the future, and his face flushed with excitement. "For our department, this means that we can receive hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D funding every year just from the revenue sharing from this technology."

Just thinking about it makes him excited.

There's no need to apply for budgets for every experimental consumable, no need to worry about project timelines being compressed, and you can explore cutting-edge technologies at your own pace, even conducting some seemingly useless basic research.

Dominic's words silenced Dave, who swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing.

He had only heard about the days when he didn't have to worry about R&D funding and could use things however he wanted.

But after a brief moment of reverie, the cold reality quickly brought Dave back to reality.

He shook his head and pointed to the still chaotic waveform on the monitoring screen. "If you can't solve the technical problems, everything else is pointless."

"Coaxial cables have inherently insufficient anti-interference capabilities, which is a technical bottleneck we cannot avoid. In actual deployment scenarios, electromagnetic radiation generated by industrial equipment operation and electric field interference from high-voltage transmission lines will intrude into the uplink frequency band of the HFC network in the form of high-frequency noise, directly causing signal distortion."

"Without solving this problem, even the best cost model is just a castle in the air."

Dominic thought for a moment and said, "Add three more noise filters to reduce the number of households covered by the optical nodes from 1000 to 500."

"No way." Dave shook his head. "Adding noise filters is one thing, but if the coverage of a single optical node is halved, it means the cost doubles. Bell Equipment Manufacturing Company will not accept this solution."

Dominic thought about it and agreed. He picked up the walkie-talkie and said, "Where are the people in the basic materials department? We need coaxial cables with higher shielding."

Soon, a lazy voice came through the walkie-talkie: "This is your project, what does it have to do with us?"

Dominic's face turned green instantly. Just as he was about to argue with the other party, Dave reached out and grabbed his right hand, which was holding the walkie-talkie.

He gestured towards the makeshift meeting room and said, "Just wait, there will be results."

Dominic hesitated. "Really? This isn't the first or second time we've had these arguments, and when have they ever ended in a resolution?"

The two knew perfectly well why they were arguing; it was all about money.

However, the problem was never completely solved each time; the work was only gradually moved forward under the mediation of Director Carl Weller.

This has already affected the progress of the project. If both parties could work together, this wouldn't be the 37th debugging experiment. Hundreds of sets would have been completed, and perhaps a solution would have been found.

Scientific research and development is inherently a process of trial and error; every failure is an elimination of incorrect options.

The more times the debugging is performed, the deeper the R&D personnel's understanding of the problem becomes, and the greater the probability of finding a solution.

Dave patted Dominic on the shoulder and whispered, "This time is different."

"Didn't you notice? Lille came in person, which means the problems with the HFC project have reached a point where they must be completely resolved."

He leaned closer to Dominic and said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "I even suspect that Ernst might be in a hurry, otherwise why would Lille have come to our side?"

Just as he suspected, Ernst was indeed getting a little anxious.

The main reason was that he didn't expect Robert Iger to be so fast. Less than a week after they started discussing the channel issue, Iger had already found a telecommunications company he wanted to acquire.

A broadband company called Astod is neither particularly large nor small.

It is an operator whose business is concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area, and it ranks among the top three in market share in the Bay Area.

This telecommunications company focuses on high speed and stability, and the newly built lines use a pure fiber optic network.

Astor was not at all resistant to MGM's acquisition offer; on the contrary, he was very happy about it.

But when it was happy, Ernst felt sorry for it.

Once the contract is signed, Astor will certainly use the funds invested by MGM to launch a new fiber optic network and continue to expand his business.

Playing with China Telecom now is a bottomless pit.

That was the case, at least until the fiber optic bubble burst.

Since it's all about throwing money away anyway, why not let our own company make the money? That way, we can lose less.