Mobile network operators worldwide are deploying 5G technology at existing and new locations, while at the same time continuing to support and leverage their existing investments in 2G/3G/4G/4G+ technology. At the same time Fixed service network operators/ISPs, often supported by governmental initiatives, are in a process of upgrading and expanding their access networks to achieve the vision of ubiquitous Gigabit service offering. Key to the successful implementation of these plans is the existence of a high quality, high capacity transport network to link the access nodes with the core network. While optical fibre is considered the primary means of high speed data interconnection, it is in many cases not available or too slow/expensive to deploy.
Gigabit capacity wireless transport technologies offer unique deployment flexibility/speed and cost advantages over optical fibre deployment. They provide performance and functionality characteristics that fully satisfy the transport requirements of data communication networks today and in the future. E-Band (71-76 / 81-86 GHz) radio technology offers compact hardware configurations with multi-Gigabit link capacities and favorable spectrum licensing costs. It has already established itself, with mobile and fixed network operators around the world, as a wireless technology that can fully meet the transport requirements of Mobile networks, as well as, fixed service Carrier Ethernet access and aggregation networks.
UltraLink™-GX80 is a high-performance, high capacity E-Band (71-76/ 81-86 GHz) radio designed for use in demanding transport applications requiring capacity up to 20Gbit/s as an alternative to optical fiber. UltraLink™-GX80's leading system gain can offer the most stable/large range E-Band links, while its combination with lower operating frequency microwave (MW) radios in Dual Band configuration can extend 10Gbit/s link ranges to 10kms and beyond.
UltraLink™-GX80 is a uniquely versatile fully outdoor radio suitable for a wide variety of applications. It supports Ethernet/IP, eCPRI or CPRI traffic transport, while offering a rich set of standards-based L2 and L3 networking features for the delivery of Carrier Ethernet and IP/MPLS-based services. Due to its ultra-high capacity, low latency and support for advanced packet synchronization methods, it fully satisfies the rigorous transport requirements of 4G and 5G mobile networks. UltraLink™-GX80 is ideally suited for 4G/4G+/5G RAN backhaul, midhaul and fronthaul or any transport application in Ethernet/IP-based networks.
UltraLink™-GX80's unique integrated Radio Link Quality Monitoring and Diagnostics functionality expedites link diagnostics and troubleshooting. Being an easy to install and manage compact fully outdoor radio, it enables minimization of deployment footprint and total cost of ownership.
UltraLink™-GX80 offers a number of highly-valued features, which are elaborated below:
UltraLink™-GX80 is based on state-of-the art RF transceiver technology capable of providing high transmit power and receiver sensitivity. Combined with INTRACOM TELECOM's advanced modem technology it offers the highest system gain at 10Gbit/s currently in the E-Band market. For 10Gbps @ 128QAM / 2000MHz the gain exceeds 70dB, (not including antenna gain). Operation at 10Gbit/s has been demonstrated in the field for a link distances exceeding 14Km. The system gain advantage of UltraLink-GX80 is present also at the other channel sizes and modulation formats supported. UltraLink™-GX80's fast up to 9-level hitless adaptive modulation and coding can provide seamless system gain and capacity trade-off to enable highest capacity for most of the link operational time and continuous link operation under adverse propagation conditions.
UltraLink™-GX80 can be combined with up to two OmniBAS™ microwave (13GHz to 23GHz) radios in Dual Band configuration, based on seamless Radio Link Aggregation technique, to further enhance a 10Gbit/s link's reach/availability at 10kms and beyond. UltraLink-GX80 can also be combined with third party MW radios, even over a single Dual Band antenna, offering the possibility of upgrading existing MW links to 10Gbit/s in the most effective way.
UltraLink™-GX80 is offering 10 Gbit/s capacity on a single 1+0 radio link achieved by combining an industry-high spectral efficiency using up to 512-QAM modulation in a 1,500 MHz-wide channel and up to 256QAM for a 2000MHz-wide channel. Furthermore, 1024-QAM is supported for channel sizes from 125 to 500MHz and 512QAM is supported for channel sizes from 750 to 1500MHz maximizing the spectral efficiency of the radio, enabling the use of smaller frequency channels to deliver a particular capacity.
UltraLink™-GX80 can offer up to 20 Gbit/s capacity, through a single antenna, via fully outdoor 2+0 XPIC configuration using a single 1500MHz channel and 256QAM modulation. XPIC doubles spectral efficiency as it allows the doubling of link capacity for a particular channel size.
Use of smaller channels to achieve a particular capacity increases the number of available channel options in dense deployment planning scenarios, reducing frequency reuse and facilitating interference management and mitigation. Use of smaller channels also can also incur reduced license fees in countries where such E-Band channel pricing is applicable.
The same UltraLink™-GX80 radio unit can be configured to operate in Ethernet Bridging or CPRI transport mode for providing native CPRI-based fronthaul.
UltraLink™-GX80 incorporates a fully-featured Provider Bridge (IEEE 802.1ad), which offers flexibility in delivering standards-based Carrier Ethernet services over various network topologies, such as tree or ring, without the need of additional switching devices. This enables faster and easier deployments that are more cost-effective. Furthermore, UltraLink™-GX80 supports carrier-grade Ethernet OAM features such as, Service OAM based on the IEEE 802.1ag and Y.1731 standards and Link OAM based on the IEEE 802.3ah standard, enabling operators to provide manageable L2 end-to-end services to their customers.
UltraLink™-GX80 supports a CPRI transport mode that enables the transport of CPRI traffic (Option 2 to Option 7). When operating in CPRI mode it supports up to three CPRI traffic streams over its three SFP+ interfaces and provides operators with the fronthaul service needed to extend the reach of their C-RAN network wherever fiber is not available.
UltraLink™-GX80 supports new generation fronthaul protocols, such as eCPRI. Support of eCPRI, which is the evolution of CPRI protocol for the 5G era, is offered in the unit's Ethernet mode of operation according to IEEE 802.1CM profile A.
The new SW platform of the UltraLink™-GX80 fully outdoor radio supports advanced Layer 3(L3) networking functionality and IP/MPLS-based services. More specifically, it supports extensive L3 networking functionality such as: IPv4 Routing (OSPF, IS-IS, BGP, RIPv1/RIPv2), MPLS LDP, RSVP-TE, MP-BGP, BFD, MPLS-OAM and delivers advanced end-to-end IP/MPLS-based services such as : L3VPN, L2VPN VPWS, L2VPN VPLS.
UltraLink™-GX80's L3 functionality alleviates the need for use of extra L3 networking devices, minimizing a deployment site's cost and complexity as well as the related space and power consumption requirements. Communication service providers, such as fixed access network operators or mobile network operators, can take advantage of this functionality to deliver advanced L3-based multi-gigabit networking services, up to the tail-sites of their network, to high-value enterprise customer sites or mobile base stations.
UltraLink™-GX80 offers per-service QoS treatment of the transported traffic based on L1, L2 and L3 classifiers. Strict Priority (SP), Weighted Round Robin (WRR), Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ) and Hybrid SP+WRR/WFQ scheduling schemes are cleverly applied to eight CoS / queues to enable the most suitable prioritization treatment for management and control plane traffic, while supporting revenue-generating service differentiation and assured critical service delivery for user plane traffic. Color-aware WRED is applied as means to gracefully manage potential queue congestion. Furthermore, ingress policing and egress shaping are applied to the incoming / outgoing service flows, allowing the definition and conformance of services to the desired characteristics. Hierarchical QoS is applied at the egress on a per queue and service level allowing the more effective, fine-grained QoS treatment of traffic.
Being an advanced packet radio, which is designed for mobile network transport applications, UltraLink™-GX80 supports a full range a packet frequency and phase/time synchronization methods. Its Ethernet interfaces support standards-based Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE) frequency synchronization distribution as well as the associated ESMC signaling channel. Furthermore, Precision Timing Protocol (IEEE 1588v2) Transparent Clock and Boundary Clock (T-BC) / (ITU-T 8275.1 profile) functionality is supported for the delivery of frequency and phase synchronization deemed necessary in case Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals are unavailable.
The Radio Link Quality Monitoring (RLQM) tool functionality is embedded in the UltraLink™-GX80 radio element. It monitors the propagation channel dynamics and identifies possible radio channel related problems. It helps determine link degradation causes such as: rain, pole structural instability, radio interference, etc. It allows to remotely and quickly identify and verify the cause of a link quality problem without onsite support staff presence or additional measurement equipment, improving the network manageability and availability by expediting the detection and resolution of a link quality problem. Thus, it increases the overall network quality and services availability and reduces the network operating costs and lost service revenues.
The Radio Link Quality Monitoring tool offers the following functionality:
The spectrum analyzer and frequency band auto-scanning features can further assist in the cause analysis as well as prove very useful at the link commissioning phase for the identification of interference from other active links. This feature can be combined with the appropriate uniMS™ add-on module to enable network wide monitoring of the radio quality conditions of the installed links.
UltraLink™-GX80 is a compact all-outdoor system that does not require IF cables or proprietary IDUs to deliver connectivity over the air. The UltraLink™-GX80 radio can connect directly to any client Base station / switch / router over standard Ethernet interface (or CPRI interface for C-RAN fronthauling) via SF|UTP and/or Optical Fibre Cables. As such, it minimizes the installation infrastructure/space requirements. Therefore links can be easily and quickly deployed benefiting the overall cost of installation.
Large organizations with multi-building connectivity needs such as corporations in the manufacturing sector or services / logistics sector, utilities & mining industries, public sector & governmental, higher education & health institutions, can deploy UltraLink™-GX80 to:
