UltraLink™-GX80 Dual is a high-performance, E-Band (71-76 / 81-86 GHz) dual radio delivering up to 15 Gbit/s full duplex capacity with maximal spectral efficiency and minimal deployment footprint and complexity. It achieves its maximum capacity, through the seamless aggregation of its two radios, operating in XPIC / RLA (L1 aggregation) mode, to one high capacity link using a single 1000 MHz-sized channel. In this way it enables operators to offer capacities up to 15Gbit/s using half the channel size of a single radio, while still utilizing a single compact unit per link site. UltraLink™-GX80 Dual inherits its leading system gain (as well as other innovative features) from the field proven UltraLink™-GX80 radio, achieving the longest E-Band radio link ranges, while delivering ultra-high capacity over the air.
As E-band becomes the de-facto wireless transport technology for 5G networks, E-Band spectrum becomes highly contested especially in countries where 3 or more operators deploy 5G networks. Consequently, spectral efficiency becomes ever more important in the E-Band frequency range and many telecom regulators are becoming reluctant to allocate 1500 MHz or 2000 MHz channels required for delivering 10 Gbit/s full duplex capacity out of a single radio. In countries where channels no wider than 1000MHz are allocated by the regulator, operators can achieve the desired 10 Gbit/s (or more) capacity only by deploying two separate E-Band single radios in XPIC configuration. However, this doubles the weight, volume, complexity, power consumption and cost of the link deployment. In some cases this increase in equipment size and weight may require replacement of the existing support structure necessitating additional costs. UltraLink™-GX80 Dual addresses this problem by integrating the two radios and the bulky OMT coupler into a single-radio sized unit.
UltraLink™-GX80 Dual unit includes advanced networking functionality based on an integrated, fully featured, Ethernet bridge that offers advanced Carrier Ethernet functionality over its up to three concurrently operating 10 GbE interfaces. In this way it can alleviate the need for the complexity, space requirements and cost of additional networking devices. Furthermore, the radio will also inherit the full IP/MPLS networking functionality from the UltraLink™-GX80 radio.
UltraLink™-GX80 Dual supports the highest accuracy frequency and phase synchronization protocols to fully address the stringent timing requirements of 5G networks.
Its unique, embedded, Radio Link Quality Monitoring and Diagnostics functionality expedites link diagnostics and troubleshooting, simplifying deployment and maintenance. Being an easy to install and manage fully outdoor radio, it enables minimization of deployment footprint, speed and total cost of ownership for delivering capacities up to 15 Gbit/s.
UltraLink™-GX80 Dual is ideally suited for 5G RAN backhaul, midhaul and fronthaul or any transport application in Ethernet/IP-based networks as an alternative to optical fiber.
UltraLink™-GX80 Dual offers a number of highly-valued features, which are elaborated below:
UltraLink™-GX80 Dual is offering up to 15 Gbit/s capacity on a 2+0 XPIC/RLA radio link, utilizing one unit and one antenna per link side, and achieving up to 512-QAM modulation in a 1000 MHz-wide channel. Furthermore, 1024-QAM is supported for channel sizes from 125 to 500MHz maximizing the spectral efficiency of the radio, enabling the use of smaller frequency channels to deliver capacities satisfying 5G transport requirements.
Use of half-sized channels to achieve a particular capacity facilitates the allocation of E-Band channels to several operators utilizing transport networks in the same area. Use of smaller channels can also incur reduced license fees in countries where such E-Band channel pricing is applicable, especially if the regulator policy incentivizes high spectral efficiency. Note that in some cases use of channel sizes ≤ 1000 MHz is necessitated by the regulator and cannot be avoided.
While it is possible to combine two single radio units in a "traditional" XPIC/RLA configuration to deliver the same capacity with half the channel size, doubling the number of radio units and coupling them with bulky OMT couplers and interconnection cables increases the weight, size, installation and configuration complexity and time, power consumption and the HW cost of the deployment. This is avoided by using the UltraLink™-GX80 Dual radio.
UltraLink™-GX80 Dual is based on state-of-the art RF transceiver technology capable of providing high transmit power and receiver sensitivity. Its 2T2T transceiver combined with INTRACOM TELECOM's advanced Dual modem technology it offers the highest system gain at 15Gbit/s currently in the E-Band market. For 15 Gbps @ 512 QAM / 1000 MHz the gain exceeds 63 dB, (not including antenna gain). For 10Gbps @ 128 QAM / 1000 MHz the gain exceeds 73 dB (not including antenna gain). The system gain advantage of UltraLink-GX80 DUAL is present also at the other channel sizes and modulation formats supported. UltraLink™-GX80 Dual's fast up to 9-level hitless adaptive modulation and coding can provide seamless system gain and capacity trade-off to enable highest capacity for most of the link operational time and continuous link operation under adverse propagation conditions.
UltraLink™-GX80 Dual can be combined with up to two OmniBAS™ microwave (13 GHz to 23 GHz) radios in Dual Band configuration, based on seamless Radio Link Aggregation technique, to further enhance a 15 Gbit/s link's reach/availability at 10kms and beyond. UltraLink™-GX80 Dual can also be combined with third party MW radios, even over a single Dual Band antenna, offering the possibility of upgrading existing MW links to 10 Gbit/s in the most effective way.
UltraLink™-GX80 Dual radio unit can be configured to operate in Ethernet Bridging for providing Backhaul, midhaul or Fronthaul (e.g. eCPRI-based fronthaul.)
UltraLink™-GX80 Dual incorporates a fully-featured Provider Bridge (IEEE 802.1ad), which offers flexibility in delivering standards-based Carrier Ethernet services over various network topologies, such as tree or ring, without the need of additional switching devices. This enables faster and easier deployments that are more cost-effective. Furthermore, UltraLink™-GX80 Dual supports carrier-grade Ethernet OAM features such as, Service OAM based on the IEEE 802.1ag and Y.1731 standards and Link OAM based on the IEEE 802.3ah standard, enabling operators to provide manageable L2 end-to-end services to their customers.
UltraLink™-GX80 Dual supports the new generation fronthaul protocols, such as eCPRI. Support of eCPRI, which is the evolution of CPRI protocol for the 5G era, is offered according to IEEE 802.1CM profile A.
UltraLink™-GX80 Dual offers per-service QoS treatment of the transported traffic based on L1, L2 and L3 classifiers. Strict Priority (SP), Weighted Round Robin (WRR), Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ) and Hybrid SP+WRR/WFQ scheduling schemes are cleverly applied to eight CoS / queues to enable the most suitable prioritization treatment for management and control plane traffic, while supporting revenue-generating service differentiation and assured critical service delivery for user plane traffic. Color-aware Tail Drop or WRED is applied as means to manage potential queue congestion. Furthermore, ingress policing and egress shaping are applied to the incoming / outgoing service flows, allowing the definition and conformance of services to the desired characteristics. Hierarchical QoS is applied at the egress on a per queue and service level allowing the more effective, fine-grained QoS treatment of traffic.
Being an advanced packet radio, which is designed for mobile network transport applications, UltraLink™-GX80 Dual supports a full range a packet frequency and phase/time synchronization methods. Its Ethernet interfaces support standards-based:
This functionality is supported for the delivery of frequency and phase synchronization deemed necessary in case Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) synchronization on antenna sites is or becomes unavailable.
The Radio Link Quality Monitoring (RLQM) tool functionality is embedded in the UltraLink™-GX80 Dual radio element. It monitors the propagation channel dynamics and identifies possible radio channel related problems. It helps determine link degradation causes such as: rain, pole structural instability, radio interference, etc. It allows to remotely and quickly identify and verify the cause of a link quality problem without onsite support staff presence or additional measurement equipment, improving the network manageability and availability by expediting the detection and resolution of a link quality problem. Thus, it increases the overall network quality and services availability and reduces the network operating costs and lost service revenues.
The Radio Link Quality Monitoring tool offers the following functionality:
The spectrum analyzer and frequency band auto-scanning features can further assist in the cause analysis as well as prove very useful at the link commissioning phase for the identification of interference from other active links. This feature can be combined with the appropriate uniMS™ add-on module to enable network wide monitoring of the radio quality conditions of the installed links.
UltraLink™-GX80 Dual is a compact all-outdoor system that does not require IF cables or proprietary IDUs to deliver connectivity over the air. The UltraLink™-GX80 Dual radio can connect directly to any client Base station / switch / router over standard Ethernet interface via SF|UTP and/or Optical Fibre Cables.
Furthermore, being a Dual radio it replaces two single radio units in a "traditional" XPIC/RLA configuration to halve the number of used radio units (also eliminating the associated bulky OMT coupler) and to reduce the weight, size, installation and configuration complexity and time, power consumption and the HW cost of the deployment.
Large organizations with multi-building connectivity needs such as corporations in the manufacturing sector or services / logistics sector, utilities & mining industries, public sector & governmental, higher education & health institutions, can deploy UltraLink™-GX80 Dual to:
