Cambridge Broadband Networks has today launched its 10Gb/s multipoint microwave backhaul platform. VectaStar Radio Controller (RC), the latest development of the company’s VectaStar microwave backhaul and access solution, is said to be designed to meet the growing capacity requirements of mobile operators around the world.
The RC is a native Ethernet VectaStar hub that currently supports doubling of sector performance to 300Mb/s, with planned upgrades this year to deliver 600Mb/s and 1Gb/s. The small footprint RC can control up to 8 VectaStar sectors and aggregate traffic from up to 240 Remote Terminals in a single 1U hub. Those features are said to exceed the requirements of network planners designing the dense backhaul networks required to support exponential growth in demand for mobile data services.
“According to Cisco, mobile data traffic nearly tripled in 2010 but until now operators have been stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to backhauling that traffic,” said Graham Peel, CEO of Cambridge Broadband Networks. “They tell us that, for a significant proportion of cell sites, fibre isn’t practical for cost or operational reasons and we know that traditional microwave technologies don’t have the flexibility to manage peak traffic demands efficiently.
“The VectaStar Radio Controller solves the problem with 300Mb/s sector performance immediately available, and an upgrade path to 1Gb/s before year end. Additionally our point-to-multipoint platform architecture is inherently efficient, both in the way it manages mobile data, and in its use of human and capital resources. Those elements combine to create the industry’s most cost effective mobile backhaul and access platform.”
The RC is based on a Gigabit Ethernet backplane supporting up to 10Gb/s sustained operation and is a software upgradable platform to allow for planned performance enhancements and new network standards.
John Naylon, Head of Development at Cambridge Broadband Networks, commented: “Higher capacities and latencies well under 1ms are a must for both HSPA and LTE backhaul. So is the ability to support IP traffic and all-IP architectures. VectaStar Radio Controller gives network designers all of these things in a small, efficient platform; the flexibility and performance of the radio controller gives our existing and future customers a backhaul platform for the future.”
With the introduction of the Radio Controller, designers can plan their high speed data networks with backhaul performance measured in 100’s of Mb/s aggregated seamlessly to 1Gb/s or 10Gb/s network interface ports, confident in the knowledge that they have a system to support their needs into the future, says Cambridge.