In March 2020, Ireland was preparing for lockdown, placing additional strain on rural networks. Enter BBnet, an ISP operating in Ireland; Irish Wireless, equipment distributor; and Aviat Networks. The three companies teamed together to design and plan a new link that delivered rural broadband services to parts of County Limerick in a few weeks.
When it comes to delivering the best in wireless backhaul solutions, Aviat sets the bar high, and now we have been selected as one of the “best-positioned suppliers” for the OpenSoftHaul (OSH) global RFI sponsored by Telecom Infra Project’s Wireless Backhaul Project Group (WBH PG).
In February, Aviat announced the availability of its transport products that conform to the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) Wireless Backhaul Project Group specification. Aviat’s products include a modular architecture that allows for an integrated multi-band (E-Band + Microwave) solution with open netconf/yang interfaces. The TIP Wireless Backhaul specification was developed by the Wireless Backhaul Project Group within TIP in collaboration with the world’s premier mobile operators, including Axiata, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, TIM Brazil, and MTN.
The evolution of applications, services and demands on private broadband networks are creating new requirements for coverage and agility, which will require a new breed of transport for backhaul. The backhaul network must be smarter, simpler and more cost effective to be able to handle the challenge of connecting any device, anywhere.
Author: Stuart Little, Director, International Product Line Marketing
Have you heard the buzz about Multi-Band? Multi-Band combines traditional microwave channel alongside an E-Band (80 GHz) channel, joining the capacity of the latter with the high availability of the former. Multi-Band makes E-Band carrier-class over longer distances, making it a much more viable and deployable solution for 5G backhaul.
Earlier this month, Aviat announced that they will now be the exclusive distributor of microwave radio for NEC in North America. Aviat is hopeful for the success of this agreement with NEC and looks forward to expanding their suite of services and offerings.
Many have had questions about what this agreement means for NEC and Aviat moving forward. Read through the questions and answers below to learn how this agreement will impact the future of microwave radio backhaul solutions in the US.
By Stuart Little, Director of International Product Line Marketing, US
5G is coming (and hopefully it won’t be accompanied by White Walkers) and will bring with it tremendous challenges for network operators, and no less critical will be backhaul, where needed capacities will grow from the hundreds of Megabits to multiple Gigabits. In their latest Microwave Outlook (from December 2017), Ericsson forecasts that by 2022 the typical backhaul requirement for a high-capacity radio site will be in the around 1 Gbps, increasing to as much as 5 Gbps towards 2025.
In microwave communications—as in all electronic communications mediums—operators trend toward the latest technologies (e.g., IP/MPLS). They all have conditioning to think that newer is better. And by and large that’s right.
However, when it comes to IP/MPLS—one of the most advanced packet technologies—you need to handle this concept with care. Especially in a mixed infrastructure that includes microwave, fiber and other potential backhaul transport.
Software-defined networking (SDN) promises to drastically simplify how transport networks deploy, operate and get serviced. Reducing OPEX remains a significant factor for implementing software-defined networking. Automating service creation, traffic and bandwidth control, and network management as well as reducing maintenance complexity of routing protocols remain areas where it will simplify backhaul and lower OPEX. The only questions seem, “When will this happen?” and “How much will it save?” And what about CAPEX? Can we expect reduction in purchase price of microwave backhaul based on such a migration?
5G mobile phone photo credit: cszar via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND
Without becoming reality, 5G mobile communications have already captured the imagination of operators and technology providers. So can the general public catch up with the hype soon? We’ll see. Meantime, behind-the-scenes mechanics of prepping for 5G continue, building on prior technologies. At each step of the evolution of backhaul infrastructure, different challenges cropped up.