The importance of wireless backhaul is more necessary than ever as wireless carriers increase their use of long-range wireless broadband to deliver voice and data back to their networks and with the outburst of WiFi hotspots. So it’s no surprise that the wireless backhaul market is booming with news regarding industry trends and enhancements on a weekly basis.

This week, Transition Networks, provider of wireless and mobile backhaul equipment, and sponsor of the Wireless Backhaul community, shared news of a recent case study of how the company helped EATEL, a Louisiana-based company, find a solution that would support its efforts to move to 4G, enable service providers to remain competitive and support the changing demands of the customer base. Taking its network to an all IP-based 4G LTE (News - Alert) wireless backhaul network was solved by leveraging the S3240 NID from Transition Networks. This wireless backhaul foundation is up and running in at least seven various 4G towers, with room for growth.

With 4G LTE deployments, the S3240 is able to give its end users advanced fault management with the latest OAM support standards like IEEE (News - Alert) 802.1ag, IEEE 802.3ah, performance monitoring, VLAN and bandwidth allocation. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, S3240 offers a wide range of DC voltage inputs and all of this at a competitive price.

Furthermore, Transition Networks has always been committed to extending networks while supplying the latest in carrier class products and technology. Transition knows all too well the retaining expenditures on TDM infrastructure and how critical it is to the wireless industry. Transition Networks is able to accommodate a conservative migration from a solid TDM wireless backhaul to a full Carrier Ethernet implementation with its large family of products, Packetband-TDM. This particular line of products was created for wireless backhaul TDM to IP convergence by utilizing the latest TDM instead of IP technology.

In related news, TMCnet’s Gary Kim (News - Alert) addressed the important issue in understanding wireless backhaul is the actual capacity required at cell sites, traditionally expressed as the number of required T1s.

According to Kim, in a business environment dominated by third generation services, demands have been relatively modest, Fujitsu (News - Alert) has argued.He added that this will change in the 4G era, though since today, most cell towers are serviced by one to four T1s, equivalent to 1.5 Mb/s to 6 Mbps. The addition of 2.5G and 3G data services has increased the need for more bandwidth to cell sites, but the requirements still have been still relatively modest.

The amount of bandwidth on a wireless network is ultimately constrained by two factors: the amount of spectrum available and the spectral efficiency of the wireless interface. Wireless frequencies, or spectrum, are allocated and auctioned by the Federal Communications Commission in 10 or 20 MHz blocks.

Stay tuned to the Wireless Backhaul Community, exclusively on TMCnet, for all the latest information regarding wireless backhaul and microwave systems.  

Stefanie Mosca is a Managing Editor for TMCnet, with a particular focus in wireless technologies as well as mobile and IP communications. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University and a bachelor's degree in communication from the University of New Haven. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page or follow her on Twitter (News - Alert) @stefaniemosca.