AirSpeed Telecom

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• AirSpeed Telecom
• Microwave radio networks
• reliability, security and cost-effectiveness
• Brendan Martin

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Presentation Introduction

• Airspeed Telecom Introduction
• Point to point available spectrum
• Radio types
• Reliability Link Design considerations
• Link Gains and losses
• Line of Sight
• Fade Margin
• Multipath
• Capability
• Security
• Microwave Usage in Ireland
• Summary

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AirSpeed Telecom

• Established 2003
• Provider of carrier grade licensed microwave
  radio telecommunications solutions
• Symmetrical uncontended
• Extensive national network
• Tier 1 internet connectivity
• Design, deploy and manage

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Point to point available spectrum

• Unlicensed
• 2.4GHz, 5.4GHz. 5.8GHz
• Open to all
• High potential for interference
• Generally less than 10km
• Capacity up to 100M interference reduces
• Low cost

• Licensed
• 6G to 80GHz from Comreg
• Exclusive spectrum
• Guarantee of no interference
• Typical distance up to 45km (recent link at 90km)
• Capacity up to 800Mbps
• Highly reliable typically 99.995 availability
• Highly secure
• Predictable delivery time
• Attractive value proposition

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Radio Types

• Leased line application
• Point to point
• Fixed wireless access point to multipoint
• Typically used for higher capacities

• Wireless DSL application
• Wimax licensed
• Proprietary unlicensed
• Typically for residential/small SME

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Reliability - Link Design Considerations

• Awareness of link gains and losses
• Distance
• Band
• Typically 6GHz to 38GHz
• Antenna size
• Typically 0.3m to 1.2m
• Power
• HP versions for range
• Line of sight
• Rainfall statistics
• Fade margin
• Multipath
• Deployment skills
• Design software used to optimise these elements

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Link Gains and losses

Transmitter 1
Transmitter 2
Splitter
Splitter
Receiver 1
Receiver 2
Antenna Gain
Propagation Losses
Antenna Gain
Output Power (Tx)
Branching Losses
Branching Losses
Fade Margin
Receiver sensitivity threshold
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Reliability - Line of sight - Path profile
Radius of 100 of Fresnel Zone 1
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Reliability Fade Margin
Fade margin - Available power budget
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Reliability - Multipath

• Multipath
• Problem for links below 10GHz
• Multiple paths to antenna
• Signal received by antenna may experience
  interference
• Paths in phase enhance signal
• Paths out of phase signal attenuated
• Effect can be very random
• Space diversity solves

In Phase
Out of Phase Phase
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Reliability - Example of multipath
Limited multipath interference
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Reliability - Example of multipath
Significant multipath interference requires
space diversity
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Reliability - Example of multipath
Significant potential multipath interference
protected by mid path obstruction
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Reliability - Link Report
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Deployment Capability critical to reliability

• Link design software
• LOS surveys
• Installation
• Panning
• Antenna stability
• Cable protection
• Personnel experience
• Management system
• Equipment reliability

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Security

• Physical security - Point to point
• Must be in beam know where link ends are
• Need specific antenna
• Frequency and Modulation
• Different channels
• Different modulation schemes
• Requires very specialised equipment
• Signal Encoding Security
• Proprietary unpublished framing mechanism
• Link ID security
• Option to set a unique Link ID
• VPN

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Microwave Usage in Ireland

• Comreg website
• gt8,000 point to point licenses
• Garda Metropolitan Network
• RTE nationwide
• O2 - backbone infrastructure
• Meteor backbone/access infrastructure
• Vodafone backbone/access infrastructure
• 3 backbone/access infrastructure
• Enterprise
• EMC
• Dairygold
• HEAnet
• DIT
• Many more

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Summary

• Microwave delivers a highly reliable
  communications link
• Low latency good for VOIP
• Predictable deployment time
• Capacity up to STM1 and above Capacity to meet
  most needs
• Technology has proven itself as equal
  alternative/complementary to fibre
• As secure as alternatives
• True resilience
• Cost-effective
• A Reliable High Availability Telecoms Solution

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Thank you bmartin_at_airspeed.ie Tel [phone]