A fiber optic network design for intelligent building

A design approach to a fiber-optic network for an intelligent building is discussed, and elements of a centrally switched star network based on high-speed asynchronous TDM (time-division multiplexed) units are presented. The network can satisfy most, if not all, of the telecommunication needs of an intelligent building such as telephone, data, teletype, facsimile, fire detection, access control, and HVAC systems. By using asynchronous TDM units, the network in effect becomes universally transparent and the applications engineer is presented with many four-wire copper cables at each office or workstation. Although the fiber-optic network; is shared by various telecommunication systems in the building, each system remains an independent entity, thereby avoiding the possibility of a catastrophic failure that can occur in systems where a single computer is designed to deal with all the telecommunication, signal, and control functions