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Alcatel-Lucent, a provider of voice, data and video communication services and solutions, reportedly is launching new capabilities to its packet microwave radio portfolio, in order to leverage fixed and mobile operators’ existing investments in microwave backhaul networks.

 

According to Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert), the new enhancements will provide added capacity that will be required to evolve profitably to next generation wireless broadband – including LTE (News - Alert). The enhancement will cost-effectively support wireless broadband services.

 

In general, LTE (long term evolution) is a new wireless broadband technology that offers data speeds comparable to the fastest fixed broadband technologies. The technology provides reduced latency, in order to ensure a high-quality end-user experience for real-time multimedia services.

 

According to Alcatel-Lucent, the anticipated growth in consumer and business use of wireless broadband services with the introduction of LTE networks will drive the need for expanded backhaul capabilities. This will deal with the challenge of transporting the resulting data traffic.

 

With that in mind, Alcatel-Lucent integrated multi-gigabit millimeter wave radios from BridgeWave, a provider of gigabit wireless solutions, into company’s 9500 Microwave Packet Radio (MPR) transmission solutions. This integration was carried out under a global agreement.

 

“We are proud to collaborate with Alcatel-Lucent, a company with a clear strategic vision for an open LTE ecosystem,” said Amir Makleff, president and CEO at BridgeWave (News - Alert). “Our expertise and leadership in the 80GHz spectrum combined with Alcatel-Lucent’s broad product offering and support organization provides customers with an attractive combination of technology and solutions.”

 

Alcatel-Lucent said that the current enhancement will expand the frequency range covered by the 9500 MPR with the high-frequency 60-90 GHz spectrum. This will offer customers up to 2.6 Gbps of capacity, which is sufficient to support the anticipated transport requirements for 2G, 3G and 4G networks.

 

The company also announced that it will enhance its Mobile Evolution Transport Architecture (META) as well. META is a comprehensive vision for the evolution of mobile networks from TDM (time division multiplexing) to all-IP.

 

“Offering the most cost-effective mobile transport network that maximizes the relationship between cost and capacity is critical to delivering greater profitability for mobile network operators, and a better service experience for end-users,” said Philippe Dumont, head of wireless transmission activities for Alcatel-Lucent.