The Global Pandemic: A Catalyst for Rural Connectivity
- February 23, 2021
- all-outdoor, connectivity, distance-learning, FCC, global fund, high-speed broadband, LTD Broadband, multi-band, multiband, RDOF, rural broadband, rural digital opportunity fund, telemedicine, unserved, virtual, Virtual Private Networks
Demand for broadband services to unserved or underserved rural communities has been a topic among governments worldwide for more than two decades. While there has been some government funding directed toward rural connectivity in prior years, the global COVID-19 pandemic has increased the urgency to close the digital divide.
Case Study: Lowering Backbone TCO in PNG with All-Outdoor Radio
- March 28, 2019
- all-indoor, all-outdoor, IP/MPLS, lowering tco, OPEX, Space Diversity, TCO, Trunking, WTM4000
By Stuart Little, Director of International Product Line Marketing
Papua New Guinea, or PNG, is one half of the island of New Guinea, along with offshore islands, located in the South Pacific immediately to the north of the Australian continent. The country is rugged and heavily covered by dense rainforest, which presents enormous challenges when it comes to establishing a national communications infrastructure. In most cases, deploying fiber routes is simply not practical nor affordable. Wireless is the only answer in these cases.
Sub-Band Free Radios – Do they really help?
- December 20, 2018
- all-outdoor, Microwave Radio, MTBF, ODU, outdoor radio, radios, RF, RF Performance, sub-band free, TCO, Total Cost of Ownership
By Stuart Little, Director of International Product Line Marketing
In the past years, a few microwave vendors have introduced ‘sub-band free’ RF outdoor units into the market. The main claim of these radios is that a single hardware variant can be deployed in any frequency sub-band, simplifying and lower costs involved with ordering, deployment and sparing of microwave networks.
However, these new radios are not available in all bands and come with a number of limitations, including lower RF performance, larger size, and weight, higher cost, limitations in modulation and channel sizes, amongst others.
Case for IP/MPLS Routers at the Small Cell…but not Just any Router!
- September 11, 2015
- all-outdoor, backhaul, CTR 8380, IP/MPLS, microwave networking, Microwave Router, small cell, VPN
With the goal of a hyper-meshed 5G street level network, clearly today’s small cell deployments represent just an interim phase in a progressive network densification—pushing the network outward. This means today’s small cell sites will become tomorrow’s macrocells, or hub sites.
Future-looking mobile operators have planned for this eventuality. In the developed world, small cell and the Internet of Things (IoT) drive mobile network densification. However, in the developing world the primary goal of enterprise connectivity spurs network densification, due to lack of wireline infrastructure to business buildings. The end result of network densification is the same.
All-Outdoor Radios Part II: Three Ways to Choose the Right ODR
- February 15, 2013
- all-outdoor, Electronics and Electrical, Extremely high frequency, forklift upgrade, microwave, millimeter-wave, ODR, Radio, Radio frequency, technology, Telecommunications, Total Cost of Ownership
Photo credit: mrbill / Foter.com / CC BY
A quick Google-glance around the Internet will reveal a panoply of all-outdoor radios (ODRs) in both microwave and millimeter-wave bands. ODRs do not conform to a universal norm in terms of networking features, power consumption, bandwidth scalability (i.e., capacity) or outright radio horsepower (i.e., system gain).
So if you find yourself asking the questions, “Which ODR is the best fit for my network?” or “How do I narrow the ODR field?” it is good to start with the basics.
The right product choice can be quickly resolved—or at least the candidates can be short-listed—by focusing on three ODR product attributes that most heavily influence the value-for-the-money (i.e., total cost of ownership or TCO) equation:
- Packet throughput capacity, which dictates the usable life of the ODR
- Power consumption, which affects the energy bill
- RF performance, which impacts antenna size—more system gain equates to smaller antennas
For many microwave backhaul networks, the growth in underlying traffic is such that products which cannot scale to 500 Mbps/1 Gbps per channel will run out of momentum too early and precipitate the dreaded “forklift upgrade” (also known as the “CFO’s nightmare”).
These same CFOs are also suffering sleepless nights due to rising energy costs—which in some countries can double year-over-year. Therefore, it behooves the operator to seek and prioritize the use of über energy-efficient products, such as the Aviat WTM 3200, which—and this is important—do not compromise on RF performance.
That brings me to my last point: System gain (RF performance) remains a core TCO factor insofar as it can drive smaller antenna usage with the concomitant capex savings. Still, there might be little to differentiate ODRs in terms of RF performance—in which case the spotlight will fall on these other attributes to sway the decision.
Having worked on the operator side and wrestled with TCO analysis on many occasions, my experience tells me that you can narrow your ODR choice quickly by reflecting on these three attributes and the TCO gains they can deliver.
Jarlath Lally
Product Marketing Manager
Aviat Networks
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- CommScope Literally Writes the Book on the RF Path (virtual-strategy.com)
- A Simple RF Protocol (or, what is the point of ZigBee?) (mikestirling.co.uk)
- NYU WIRELESS Conducts 5G Measurements in New York City (geobrava.wordpress.com)
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All-Outdoor Microwave Radios: Site Considerations
- November 16, 2012
- all-outdoor, Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, microwave, Microwave Radio, microwave radios, Microwave transmission, Radio, radio modem, radio sector, split-mount, technology, Telecommunications
One of the great things about the microwave radio market today is the diversity of products available to network operators. But like many situations where there is a glut of options, it tends to put more stress on making the right choice.
An operator looking at products in the microwave radio sector will notice that there are three general categories of product to choose from: all-indoor, split-mount and all-outdoor, and within each, they are myriad different flavors.
All-outdoor radios are the most recent addition to the microwave radio party, and for the sake of easy reference, I’ll refer to them as ODRs (outdoor radios). These self-contained systems incorporate the traffic interfaces, switching/multiplexing elements, radio modem and radio transceiver—all packaged in a weatherproof outdoor housing. By contrast, an outdoor unit (ODU) used in split-mount systems only contains the radio transceiver, which connects to a radio modem embedded in an indoor unit (IDU). In a split-mount radio system, the IDU also provides the traffic interfaces and switching/multiplexing elements.
The rationale for ODRs is straightforward—networks are getting denser, new sites are getting smaller and established sites more densely populated. Space for equipment such as IDUs is at a premium and costs of upgrading sites with bigger equipment shelters is often not viable or possible due to site constraints. As a result, more network devices are being repackaged for deployment outdoors on supporting structures such as towers, walls or masts. Advances in electronics have made microwave radios viable for all-outdoor treatment, so ODRs came into being.
They did so to a fanfare of claims that pointed to fantastic gains in terms of operator TCO (total cost of ownership). No doubt, an ODR can deliver cost benefits, but it is important to fully scope and quantify those benefits, because although ODRs represent simplification in terms of product architecture, most networks have remained stubbornly complex. In practical terms, this means for each type of site in the network an operator needs to closely examine the gains an ODR might generate vs. a split-mount radio, for example. Our experience is that ODRs provide the most operator benefits at sites where:
- One gigabit Ethernet (GbE) interface is adequate
- Only a single local device will be connected (such as an LTE basestation)
- There are no requirements to aggregate traffic from “downstream” sites
- Out-of-band management facilities are not required
- Non-protected (1+0) link configuration is adequate
Once operators consider sites with requirements beyond this scope—usually the majority—then ODRs (somewhat ironically) start to generate complexity and cost. This becomes manifest in the form of multiple Ethernet cable runs, multiple power cable runs, multiple PoE injectors, multiple lightning protection devices and, in some cases, the need for a separate outdoor Ethernet switch.
Even at modestly complex sites, the overhead costs ODRs can generate mean that a split-mount radio will often be a more effective option and deliver better TCO, assuming space can be found. On that note it is worth highlighting that IDUs already deployed at such sites are often modular and can be scaled without consuming any additional rack space, and the most advanced fixed (i.e., non-modular) IDUs only consume a half-rack unit of space.
On the surface, the case for ODRs can seem compelling but before jumping in, I would encourage operators to carefully examine how marketing claims translate into meaningful (real) TCO gains.
I am convinced ODRs represent a new and potentially very useful product category for microwave radio, but they are not a panacea; our experience (at Aviat Networks) is that optimum TCO is based on a mix of split-mount and all-outdoor radios (i.e., one “size” does not fit all).
So there you have it, in the right environment, an ODR can offer a winning formula but in other situations, it may not work so well. An old saying comes to mind: Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is knowing not to put a tomato in a fruit salad.
Next time, we will examine ODRs in more detail, how they differ and how to choose the best option for your network.
Jarlath Lally
Product Marketing Manager
Aviat Networks
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- 3 Types of Microwave Propagation and the Horn Antenna (aviatnetworks.com)
- Pole Sway and Small Cell Deployments for Wireless Backhaul (aviatnetworks.com)
- Evolution of Trunking Microwave Radios (aviatnetworks.com)
- Operators seek review of microwave frequency charges (vanguardngr.com)