Technology

Douglas FastNet (DFN) is a facilities based carrier. That means we build the network that we run on and sell. As one of the first broadband-capable networks in Douglas County,  we started by building a state-of-the-art fiber optic network core. We built fiber from our LS Networks meet point in Melrose into Northwest Roseburg, then a ring network completely encircling the business areas of the town. A recent extension out Diamond Lake Blvd. completes the current network.

 We have three major switching and processing locations on the ring, our East and West Points of Presence (POPs) and a facility collocated inside the Qwest central office. Each POP can operate independently to provide critical services and each is equipped with uninterruptible power and environmental controls. We have upstream Internet bandwidth through both the LS Networks interconnect and the Qwest central office, providing full diversity. We maintain our upstream bandwidth at levels well in excess of our peak hour demand ensuring low latency and plenty of reserve in case of failure or upstream outage. We have the capability in-house to build aerial or underground cable facilities as well as test, splice, and repair fiber cables.

The Metro Ethernet services we provide are based on the World Wide Packets service platform, an optimized, carrier grade switching infrastructure designed specifically to support advanced services over a fiber optic infrastructure. Juniper routers and core switches provide the high capacity core functions as well as providing sub-second recovery from many potential network outage events.

Our Broadband Wireless network shares our dedication to carrier grade services with (currently) nine transmitter tower locations in central Douglas County. Each location supports several Trango broadband wireless access points operating in the 5Ghz and 900Mhz bands. This system provides up to 10Mbps throughput per Access Point radio. A single access point can support up to 500 simultaneous subscribers. A typical tower location consists of six access point transmitters, each covering a 60 degree arc with up to 10 miles line-of-sight range. Most of the tower locations are connected directly to our fiber backbone, those that are too remote utilize dedicated point-to-point backhaul radios with capacity from 60 to 100Mbps.

Our network management system is based on the open source Nagios and Cacti packages and was heavily customized in-house to meet our unique requirements. It continuously monitors all active components and business customer connections in our network. Any service impacting event generates an instant notification to our on-call engineer. Our 24 hour Helpdesk can also escalate problems directly to an engineer at any time.

DFN provides web, email, and domain hosting services based on production servers housed in our colocation facilities. Our web servers provide LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python) services. Our mail servers are running Modus Mail with continuous updates to our Spam and Anti-Virus filtering. Domain hosting is supported by a triple-redundant DNS system with diverse, battery-backed locations.

Our colocation facilities offer 24 hour card key access with individually locking racks in full rack or 1/3 rack increments as well as shared per-RU "condo" space. Full time video monitoring and logging are in effect. Battery backup is measured in days, not minutes, and 120V power inverted from the battery pile is available. Internet access at 100 Megabit speeds and local Transparent LAN Services at Gigabit speeds are available.

DFN and LS Networks: Douglas FastNet was formed in 2002 to bring Broadband to Douglas County. At the same time a consortium of local networks, municipalities, utilities, and tribes formed the Northwest Open Access Network for Oregon (NoaNet Oregon), a non-profit backbone network provider serving the more rural areas of Oregon (which includes most of the State). DFN was the NoaNet member and local presence in Douglas County. Last year NoaNet reorganized and became LS Networks. DFN retains an ownership role in the new company, and continues to represent LS Networks in Douglas County. Through LS Networks we can provide high speed fiber optic Internet, Ethernet, and SONET based services throughout Oregon and beyond. LS Networks has a presence in our colocation facilities and currently has an OC-48 (2.4Gbps) redundant ring SONET service serving Roseburg.

DFN is continuing to expand both the fiber and wireless infrastructures. We are investigating new wireless technologies capable of supporting non-line-of-sight connections as well as Mesh clustering radios to provide service to some areas where dense tree coverage or hills block our conventional line-of-sight systems. Additional transmitter locations are being evaluated to expand our service footprint to additional communities. Fiber expansion is planned both to the east and north of our existing ring, and two additional wireless transmitter locations are planned to be converted to direct fiber feeds. We are investigating Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) as a potentially economic method of reaching further into the more rural areas of the county.

DFN is dedicated to providing metro class broadband services throughout Douglas County. If you have a broadband requirement anywhere within the County we'd like to talk to you.