WAN without wires: the rise and rise of licensed wireless networks
Does
your enterprise network really need all those wires? Discover how
major advancements in microwave radio technology have given
licensed wireless the speed, reliability and resilience that make
it a natural choice for your WAN.
No two
enterprises or public sector bodies face exactly the same business
challenges. But what they all have in common is the need for a
rock-solid enterprise network to support increasingly heavy,
increasingly critical traffic flows, among users whose thirst for
bandwidth shows no signs of abating. Speed, reliability, cost,
security and ease of maintenance of an enterprise network are all
crucial, and IT managers and business management rightly have these
criteria front of mind when considering their options.
And the list of options is substantial. DSL, fibre, licensed and
unlicensed wireless and even leased lines endure as popular choices
for data transmission technologies in the wide area network.
Yet the contender with arguably the biggest range of benefits to
offer is also largely underutilised in Ireland: licensed wireless.
What's licensed wireless?
Licensed wireless networks use microwave radio technology to
securely transmit data at up to 1Gbps between two or more sites.
Powerful, tightly focused radio antennae communicate by
line-of-sight paths that have been carefully designed by
experienced engineers; networks themselves can span hundreds of
kilometres, with individual hops of up to 90km. The transmission
devices at the endpoints exchange data on pre-defined channels for
which government-issued licences are required.
And because the endpoints transmit on licensed frequencies,
performance is guaranteed. Unlike unlicensed wireless networks,
such as those built on WiFi, licensed wireless networks can deliver
QoS and non-interference guarantees, offering solid business
assurance for mission-critical and latency-sensitive traffic such
as voice and video.
Licensed wireless offers exceptionally wide geographic reach and
can provide extremely high bandwidth. The technology has made a
name for itself by bringing unprecedented bandwidth to remote
areas, including parts of the Gaeltacht, where fibre could never
affordably reach. Enterprises and public sector bodies are also
increasingly turning to licensed wireless because its 1Gbps speeds
are available at an affordable price point. The ease of
installation is also a key advantage, with no need for ground
works.
If it's so good, why isn't licensed wireless everywhere?
Actually, it is everywhere. It's the technology that mobile
operators, for instance, use for backhaul, connecting their network
of base stations to their core network.
What's new with the technology is its availability: over the last
five years, licensed wireless has become more accessible outside
the telecoms industry, for two reasons. First, licensed wireless
network operators have completed build-out of their own networks,
which are now ready to service enterprise clients.
Second, and more important, the bandwidth has arrived. One
Dublin-based engineer who has tracked the development of microwave
radio over more than two decades notes that the last few years have
seen the most exciting developments yet in terms of bandwidth
expansion.
"In the same way that copper telephone lines are now able to carry
reasonably high-speed traffic with DSL, telecommunications
engineers have made major strides with the modulation equipment
that transmits microwave radio signals," explains Owen Drumm, an
electronics design engineer specialising in microwave radio. "The
developments in microwave radio happened in much the same way as
those which have allowed the capacity of telephone lines to be
extended. These developments have allowed the capacity of the
airwaves to be extended. It's all about making better use of a
single cycle of wave energy."
Making your business case for licensed wireless
If you're considering your options for an updated primary or
backup network for your enterprise, here are the Top Five takeaways
to remember about licensed wireless:
- Excellent
signal quality and strength: licensed wireless is radio, but
not as you know it. Forget your experiences of FM radio, or even
WiFi and Bluetooth, where dropped lines and interference are
commonplace. Those are all broadcast technologies, with antennae
spanning 360°, as the receiver never knows where the
transmission is coming from. As Drumm explains it, licensed
wireless delivers a "laserlike link" between two points. "A
licensed point-to-point wireless link is not omnidirectional," he
notes. "It's more like a laser than a lightbulb. There's an
immense difference in the quality and stability of the signal
compared to any other radio technology you may have experience
of."
- Field
tested for quality: existing users of licensed wireless
networks report very low latency and jitter, with performance
equivalent to fibre. Users span sectors including government,
manufacturing, pharmaceutical, media and broadcasting, transport,
financial services, telecommunications and
hospitality.
- Five
nines availability: licensed wireless networks can be
engineered to guarantee 99.999% uptime and in practice often
exceed this. In fact the technology is now routinely used as an
enhancement to existing fibre-based WANs to increase their
overall uptime. Always enquire as to the certification and
experience of the link design engineers who will plan your
licensed wireless network. Their expertise will be critical in
delivering high availability and reliability.
- A
managed service to decrease the burden on your team:
reputable licensed wireless providers typically offer a complete
managed service, designing, installing and proactively monitoring
uptime and usage of the network.
- Bandwidth
on demand: older licensed wireless networks typically offered
bandwidth of around 2 Mb per second. Developments in the
technology mean it is now easy to deliver up to 1Gbps to the
building, with the important extra benefit of scalability. Like
fibre solutions, the bandwidth on a licensed wireless can be
increased or decreased quickly and easily, offering important
growing room and flexibility for future needs or seasonal
variations in bandwidth requirements.
There's no doubt that the age of licensed wireless is upon us. All
that remains to be seen is which enterprises will be among the
first to exploit it as a competitive advantage.
For more information and white papers on licensed wireless
technology, visit AirSpeed
Telecom.
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