Microwave systems make a comeback
At one time these were the main backbone of all inter-city communication. While little is being written in the media, microwave systems are making a comeback. It is interesting to note that when an industry is under pressure, the creative R&D juices start to flow.
While many manufacturers of microwave equipment looked to other technologies for their fortunes, some did not and focused on developing systems that could match fibre connections in terms of quality and security. These companies now specialise in microwave and are putting in major efforts to develop new products that match the requirements of today and tomorrow.
It is true that microwave systems offer limited bandwidth compared to fibre but with the development of better compression techniques the newer systems can handle up to 2 Gbps.
Richard Smuts-Steyn, CEO of Multisource, believes that microwave will always have its place in the communications market. Unlike fibre optic cables, microwave systems are immune to road or other civil works. “It is a reliable back-up system that can be installed and be fully operational in less than six hours.. Should disaster strike and all cable system fail, microwave systems can bridge the gap fast.”
With spectrum liberalisation, even here in South Africa and the so-called spectrum dividend that will accrue when SA changes to digital television, more circuits are likely to become available. A further plus is that with proposed new Independent Communications Authority of SA spectrum licence fees – expected to come into force in April 2012 – many companies are likely to give up the frequencies they were hoarding, just in case they wanted to use them some time in the future. These factors will go a long way to make frequencies more easily available.
Microwave is ideal for point to point use, particularly if a company requires less than 1 Gbps bandwidth.
In the past security was one of the constraints as signals could be easily be intercepted. This has changed substantially. Trango, one of the companies that chose to stay in the microwave business, recently launched their new products. These offer, with intelligent payload compression, a capacity of 1 Gbps on a single carrier with the first licensed band system to incorporate IPsec tunnelling with real time AES256-GCM for USA National Security Agency Suite B compliance.
Trango’s Suite B compliance and FIPS 140-2 certification make the product globally unique and offers the military, government, medical, and banking sectors real time data encryption suitable for the transmission of sensitive, classified information.
Trango’s new development supports all the frequency bands and TR spacing in the 6 – 40 GHz range and offers as much as 10 dB more transmission gain compared with what is currently available on the market. This translates to a greater link distance or the use of smaller dishes. Using a smaller dish reduces the equipment and installation cost. This performance is matched in the complete outdoor unit that allows the input to be directly connected to the system without the need to set-up a carrier equipment bay where traditionally the interface units were fitted and operated.
“I believe with these security and link budget enhancements many new markets will open. We have already seen it on this continent,” said Smuts-Steyn.
Source: EngineerIT
Microwave systems making a comeback
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