Microwave Switches

Both Eclipse and the IRU 600 offer market-leading solutions to network operators who need robust, flexible features such as extra high power (EHP), hybrid transport of TDM and IP traffic, superior system gain, and the latest security technologies.

In both products, the enhancements consist of new firmware added to existing modules. The firmware is a highly efficient way to enable true native transport of both TDM and IP traffic. It’s like having two radios (from two different technology eras) moving traffic seamlessly across the same network expanse—without the cost of two radio systems and with easy, cost-effective new ways to migrate your network to current transport technologies over time.

By Stephane Varin, Senior Product Manager

In an era of growing security threats from terrorism, border security and immigration, attacks on critical infrastructure and general public unrest, the issue of security in communication networks is more important than ever. The new generation of IP-based wireless technology is an enabler for applications such as mobile commerce, voice over IP (VoIP) and high-definition video delivery to smartphones, but it has also opened some sinkholes in the foundation that pre-LTE architectures and applications have established.

Image via Wikipedia

When people think of mobile security, they usually think of encryption for their smartphones, tablet computers such as the BlackBerry PlayBook or other wireless devices. Or they think of a remote “wipe” capability that can render any lost device blank of any data if some unauthorized party did in fact try to enter the device illegally. These wireless solutions are all state-of-the-art thinking in the mobile security community. And many wireless equipment OEMs and third-party mobile security providers offer them.

Cisco routers remain the backbone of internet connections worldwide. Deep in the heart of networks, core routers perform the essential plumbing of the web. Further out on the edges, access routers provide connectivity for mobile devices via microwave radios (many of which are Eclipse radios from Aviat Networks). Generally, routers assume a full 1 Gbps bandwidth capability between Layer 2 connections provided by microwave radios.

However, modulation and channel size selections can vary the actual bandwidth between 1 Mbps and 1000 Mbps (i.e., 1 Gbps). This can also happen when Adaptive Coding Modulation (ACM) is activated on a point-to-point microwave link and the link’s bandwidth varies based on propagation conditions. If congestion occurs on the link, the router cannot quickly prioritize traffic nor select the optimal path, resulting in possible “black holing” of critical traffic.

The public safety market has relied for many years on Aviat Networks to be a supplier of mission-critical microwave backhaul equipment. For example, since the introduction of the Eclipse microwave radio a few years ago, it has been received very successfully in the Australia public safety market. In the last five years, Aviat has sold and deployed thousands of radios (i.e., TRs) in the public safety and life critical radio ecosystem.

“The cutting-edge Gigabit Ethernet and IP capabilities of Eclipse were critical for Australia government agencies,” says Raj Kumar, vice president, sales and services, Asia Pacific, Aviat Networks. “As radio sites rolled out across Australia, Eclipse has enabled efficient deployment of multiple radio carriers in a single chassis—a mission-critical advantage for the simulcast trunking sites.”

Just this February, Ncell, the leading mobile provider in Nepal, awarded Aviat Networks an Appreciation Certificate for successfully migrating its existing VSAT network to high-speed Eclipse microwave radio. This project was executed in the Himalaya range at an average attitude of 4,410 meters above sea level with three passive repeater links. Included in this rollout is a 99 km microwave link.

According to Ncell, this is the world’s highest 3G rollout. As a result, this upgrade is considered a feather in Ncell’s hat.

While Aviat Networks has completed many successful projects with Ncell, this one is worth a special mention. Awarded in 2013, this project has helped Aviat establish itself as a key Ncell vendor for the access network. The implementation includes equipment and services.

Dick Laine, longtime principal engineer for Aviat Networks, delivers one of his patented presentations on microwave networking during an installment of the video blog Radio Head Technology Series.

Microwave radios come and microwave radios go, but the sage advice of Aviat Networks Principal Engineer, Dick Laine, has no end-of-life. In our seventh installment of the very popular video blog Radio Head Technology Series Dick talks about the diversity of diversity schemes and other protection methods available to microwave networking engineers.

Using examples from the radio legacy of Aviat Networks (e.g., Constellation, MegaStar—you must remember these, it hasn’t been that long) and our current microwave networking solutions (e.g., Eclipse, TRuepoint 6500, WTM 6000) he expounds on the past, present and future of protection. From Angle Diversity (one of the earliest diversity schemes used in Line-of-Sight digital microwave) to Hybrid Diversity (HD) and Frequency Diversity (that need licensing waivers to be used in many applications) to comparisons of fiber-like protection methods, Dick covers it all. For example, did you know that a four-dish HD antenna arrangement offers little to no performance improvement over a three-dish HD configuration?

So with free registration to the video series you can have the benefit of all of Dick’s wisdom and nonpareil presentation style on Diversity. You get access to all the earlier videos, too. (Did we mention there are six previous episodes?) And the presentation slides. And the podcast. And all for FREE! Wow! If you don’t see a topic that you think needs to be covered, feel free to submit your suggestion into our inbox. Register today!

Some leading telecommunications carriers are quietly effecting a shift in design priorities. For microwave radio, for example, output power, receive threshold, system gain and various other performance parameters (the dBs) have always been important product differentiators. Equipment vendors have also strived to make their equipment ever smaller to fulfil a requirement to pack more capacity into less rack space.  There is, however, what appears to be a shift in some quarters.

British Telecom (BT), Verizon and AT&T are among those passionate about reducing their energy consumption and, hence, their carbon emissions. Environmentally aware operators that have set themselves the challenge of reducing their overall energy usage are facing the challenge of doing so at a time when there is an exponential increase in demand for their services.   The frequency with which the kWh is referred to by operators increases with each passing year.

BT was an early mover and has already reduced its UK carbon emissions by 60% since 1997 and reduced its energy consumption by 2.5% year-on-year, as reported Spring 2011. BT has set an incredibly ambitious target of cutting its carbon footprint by 80% between 1997 and 2020. How are they doing this at a time of growth?  Well, BT has reported that their new 21st century data centers use 60-70% less energy and the resulting financial savings have made the centers profitable within 18 months. BT estimates that an incredible 50% of the energy consumed by a typical data centre can be consumed by cooling. By introducing fresh air cooling they have reduced this requirement by 85%, as much of the year no refrigeration is required.

Among other measures, BT has focused on energy efficiency of network equipment and also increased efficiency by supplying DC power directly to equipment rather than sustaining significant losses associated with converting AC power to DC. This is an incredibly inspiring record. BT is genuinely committed to its environmental policy believing that it has a responsibility to reduce power consumption, as one of the UK’s top ten energy users. There is certainly a compelling business case for their policy too as they have seen substantial savings and also a significant increase in the volume of business that requires environmental reporting.  BT estimates that its UK business alone saved £35M or $54M for the year 2010/2011 over where their energy usage would have stood without the efficiencies introduced by their energy program.

Verizon has emerged as a key North American player and, witnessing what they considered to be apathy with regard to standardization, the Verizon NEBS group released an energy efficiency standard (VZ.TPR.9205) in 2008.  NEBS had been traditionally focused on EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) and physical protection requirements such as survival over temperature and earthquake resistance. Energy efficiency became, therefore, an unexpected but vital third strand of NEBS for Verizon.  Since then, energy efficiency and related topics have become key at the Verizon-hosted annual NEBS conferences. Verizon has launched a carbon intensity metric which measures Verizon’s carbon intensity by factoring the amount of CO2 produced per Terabyte of data. Year-on-year, Verizon achieved a 15.75% reduction 2009/2010. Verizon’s projections show a forecasted financial saving of around $22M for 2011. Equipment cooling is recognized by Verizon and AT&T as a big factor in energy consumption too but their method of managing this varies.

At this year’s NEBS conference both AT&T and Verizon made announcements that will affect the way that some vendors design their equipment.  AT&T announced that from 1st January 2012 they will mandate equipment with airflow that flows front to back within the rack. This move is related to the fact that AT&T has established ‘hot aisles’ and ‘cool aisles’ within its centers. The aisle facing the front of the rack is the cool aisle and the equipment draws air from this aisle, exhausting it into the hot aisle. This allows for the hot air to be efficiently extracted from the center, resulting in significant reductions in the energy consumed by the HVAC system. Verizon also announced that it would be mandating front-to-back airflow in the future. They are seeking to include this as a requirement within GR-63-CORE as this Telcordia standard currently states front-to-back airflow as an objective only.  Verizon’s motive for seeking this change to GR-63-CORE is the fact that they also have a hot aisle/cool aisle system. Verizon is also hoping to have the core NEBS standards updated to include energy efficiency requirements. If successful this will mean that NEBS certification, whether it is for equipment intended for Verizon or not, will need to meet a minimum efficiency specification and have front-to-back cooling. Another shift is that efficiency of equipment cooling is starting to be regarded ahead of equipment size by some operators.  A slightly larger mechanical enclosure is easier to cool, using less energy. All of these shifts seem to suggest that environmental performance is taking its place alongside other parameters as a key consideration for some operators.

Aviat Networks’ Eclipse product line meets the Verizon energy efficiency standard and additional energy efficiencies are being built into future products. Aviat Networks is committed to working  closely with customers, vendors and standards agencies to both understand and promote the requirement for environmental sustainability within the telecoms sector at a time when it is challenged with an explosion in demand.

BT’s sustainability report, 2011

More information on Verizon’s environmental sustainability

Footnote – NEBS (Network Equipment Building Systems).

Ruth French Product Compliance Manager Aviat Networks

Balancing cost and performance is a tough act for most operators dealing with telecom networking, especially when it comes to equipment procurement.  Getting all the bells and whistles can sometimes result in having a lot of options to choose from.   Often times microwave users have to juggle with a variety of radio options that suit a particular site requirement, for example, having to select between low power or high power radios to meet varying distance or system throughput/gain needs.  Depending on location and licensing requirements, this may even translate into different products types for different frequency bands.  More products result in more spares to maintain in inventory, along with added support and maintenance, inevitably leading to higher costs.

To help address this challenge, Aviat recently unveiled the industry’s first universal outdoor unit (ODU) to support software- defined base and high power modes in a single ODU, with Aviat’s unique Flexible Power Mode (FPM) capability.  FPM allows operators to optimize both cost and performance, minimizing their overall total cost of ownership, by paying for the power they need only when needed.  As a result, operators can procure a single ODU for multiple locations and via a simple software licensing mechanism, remotely adjust the transmit output power to meet the needs of a particular site.  No need to spare multiple radios, nor deal with the operational burden of managing and supporting a variety of product options.

Additionally, operators can apply this flexibility to migrate from legacy low power, low capacity radios to a high power and performance ODU  to support much greater link throughput, without having to change their installed antennas. This minimizes both their CAPEX and OPEX while migrating their network from a legacy low capacity TDM microwave link to a high speed Ethernet one.

So while juggling may still be a well needed skill to survive in Telecom, Aviat is reducing the load when it comes to microwave networking. Click here to find out more.

Errol Binda Senior Solutions Marketing Manager Aviat Networks

This week Aviat Networks exhibited at the AfricaCom tradeshow in Cape Town, South Africa. It was good to see the registered attendance was up 20% from last year, totaling 6,450 registrants from over 1,500 different companies. This year’s show focused on the evolution of the whole telecom, media, and ICT ecosystem. New topics included innovation, social media, cloud computing, and mobile health.

At our stand we showcased:

Interactive 3D models of the products can be found here.

Aviat Networks