BridgeWave Communications has launched a family of high-capacity 30 GHz radios for mobile backhaul, available in the second quarter of this year. The FlexPort family supports legacy traffic as well as the expanded requirements of future 4G traffic, so carriers can migrate to next-generation networks on their own schedule.
The scalable radios connect TDM-based mobile base stations and supports full-rate gigabit IP transport for future 4G networks on a single Outdoor Unit (ODU) platform. It operates in the 80 GHz frequency band, where it provides up to 1.5 Gbps of capacity with planned product rollouts in the coming months for rates up to 2.6 Gbps.
The FlexPort also provides simultaneous transmission of up to four native SONET/SDH payloads and gigabit Ethernet streams over a single RF carrier and uses QPSK modulation, providing better spectral use compared to other 80 GHz solutions, BridgeWave says. This has the potential to lower licensing costs and improve frequency reuse/conservation of the 80 GHz resource. Additionally, the radio’s Carrier Ethernet Network Management (Ethernet OAM & CFM) enables end-to-end management and monitoring required by carrier-class next-generation networks.
“Carriers are facing a perfect storm in 2009 with growing mobile traffic, the need to support native TDM and IP, public pressures and costs of 4G, and an economy that has yet to rebound,” says Idan Bar Sade, senior vice president of engineering and product management at BridgeWave. “This backdrop means carriers need a flexible product strategy that addresses the scalability and capacity issues for their networks today, while ultimately making their 4G initiatives competitive and profitable with a low total cost of ownership.”
Backhaul accounts for about half of mobile network operational costs.
“As carriers migrate to 4G networks, they will need to develop cost-effective backhaul strategies that do not forsake their legacy TDM investments while accounting for the stress that bandwidth hungry IP-based 4G applications will place on networks,” says Earl Lum, president of EJL Wireless Research. “Mobile operators must take this “future-proofing” into account to address future bandwidth needs and network traffic flexibility to minimize network buildout costs and investments, resulting in more profitable mobile data services.”