SEATTLE -- Terabeam Corporation, a pioneering developer of wireless broadband telecommunication systems, has been awarded its tenth patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office related to its free space optics (FSO) and millimeter wave (MMW) transmission systems.The patent, numbered 6,483,621, covers a method for preventing interference and increasing the performance of Terabeam's pointing and tracking technology that was developed to automatically align the system's invisible, eye-safe laser beams.Terabeam's free space optics systems transmit up to a gigabit per second of information over a narrow laser beam that can be directed through office windows or from building rooftops. Because the transmitted beam is so narrow (less than a meter in diameter when connecting buildings a kilometer apart), Terabeam's scientists and engineers needed to develop a system that would compensate for building motion caused by wind and sun exposure and the vibrations caused by normal office activity, such as opening and closing of doors and walking near FSO transceivers.In addition, the pointing and tracking system must be capable of ignoring interference from other light sources such as sunlight. As the sun moves during the day, at some point it could create a conflict with the reception of a laser beam coming from a similar angle. The tracking system must not allow its performance to be affected. This latest patent covers a method of encoding a signal on the FSO transmission such that the tracking light can be isolated from optical noise sources such as the sun. This is a key patent for Terabeam and noteworthy for any FSO system operating at 1550 nanometers and utilizing this wavelength's high power and high data rate capacities. Free space optics systems that use this wavelength require new tracking technologies compared to those used historically in near-infrared FSO systems. Terabeam Corp.