The use of wireless technology for backhaul continues to flourish, with a number of recent news announcements bolstering the space.
Aviat Networks has launched a new IP/MPLS router that incorporates microwave transport as well as Layer 2 carrier Ethernet. The CTR 8000 platform is intended to be a new generational leap for Aviat, according to Shaun McFall, SVP and chief marketing officer for Aviat. The last time the company made a similar evolution was in the increase in capacity needed for the widespread deployment of 3G, McFall said. Although microwave capacity has been increased by about a factor of 10 in the past five to six years, “we’re going to increase it again to keep its viability, because the only other alternative is fiber, which can be prohibitively expensive or fairly difficult to do,” he said.
“The more capacity we build, the more capacity we’re asked to build,” McFall added.
McFall noted that the shift to all-IP networks has given the company an opportunity to innovate as the new router integrates microwave backhaul as well as pushing MPLS to the edge of the network, where it has so far been used primarily in the core.
Aviat has been proving out the technology with existing customers, McFall said, and already has a few customer wins for the first router in the platform: the CTR 8540. Osnova Telecom of the Russian Federation and Entel in Chile are its first public customers, with deliveries expected in the coming weeks.
Michael Pangia, president and CEO of Aviat, said in a statement that the device “combines the functionality of five separate devices and supports 50% more radio interfaces and twice as many gigabit Ethernet ports as any other microwave solution and delivers up to four gigabits-per-second of aggregate capacity per link.”
“Aviat’s CTR solves the radio-IP integration problem by combining two functions into a single device-the microwave router,” said Nick Marshall, principal analyst at ABI Research, in a statement. “CTR makes network operations simpler and most cost effective with only a lone network element to buy, deploy, and maintain.”
Also this week in the microwave arena, Ceragon Networks said it was selected to design and build a high-capacity wireless backbone for India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, which is India’s largest oil and gas exploration and production company.
The new network will connect offshore and onshore sites, replacing existing satellite Internet infrastructure. The project, which includes site-survey, system design and engineering, project management and installation services as well as Ceragon’s Evolution Long Haul solution, is valued at “several million U.S. dollars,” according to the company.
ONGC produces the majority of India’s crude oil and natural gas and intends to use the network for supervisory control and data acquisition and video surveillance, along with corporate-wide IT services to its sites such as SAP applications, Internet access, e-mail and video-conferencing.
Sub10 Systems is pushing its millimeter wave wireless technology globally, making it available in Mexico via telecom solutions provider Sitec. Sub10’s technology has been successfully tested by Vodafone and Virgin, according to the company, and it has undergone recent international expansion to make its products available in Spain.
The company also announced this week that it has a new distribution agreement with Alcoma for its wireless Ethernet bridge range. Alcoma, based in the Czech Republic, specializes in point-to-point microwave and millimeter wave radio relay links for 4-80 GHz. Sub10 Systems’ produces millimeter wave systems in 60 GHz, 70 GHz and 80 GHz.
M/A-COM Technology Solutions says it now has the industry’s highest-power, full E-Band power amplifier for small cell wireless backhaul. MACOM said its MAAP-011106 E-Band power amplifier supports data rates of 1 Gbps or higher using 10 megahertz of E-Band spectrum and eliminating the need for two different amplifiers to be used to cover the full 71-86 GHz frequency band.
