New generation unlicensed, carrier-class Ethernet radios replacing T1 and T3 leased lines
In the new era of connecting the LANs of remote facilities together, the Telcos don’t want you to know about point-to-point broadband microwave bridges. Why? Becuase the Telco’s bread and
Flat-panel antennas viewed from atop a water tower
butter business is selling bandwidth in the form of T1, T3, and Sonet leased lines. Over the years, business has tried various methods of “bypassing” the Telcos by installing their own dry copper or dark fiber where possible. Until 8 years ago, connecting remote offices or facilities amounted to dialup ISDN at 128 kbps or on the high-end, T1 circuits running at 1.544 Mbps. Neither was a great choice for bandwidth-hungry Ethernet applications, but they were faster than anything else at the time. Anyone who ever had to pay for one knows they can get very pricy. And the cost goes on and on indefinately month after month.
Always looking for a better and faster way, manufacturers began offering wireless devices for the 802.11 WiFi market that could be “stretched” in some cases to go a little farther. But not until the 5 GHz frequencies were opened up did any of that really matter.
Today, wireless bridges that operate in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands routinely span distances of up to 75 miles at speeds of 50 Mbps and higher and require no licensing by the FCC. The benefit for business is obvious–the return on investment for a single link averages about 6 months, and that’s not even factoring in the increased bandwidth over the cost of the T1 circuit the wireless link is replacing. After that, there are no recurring costs associated with point-to-point wireless connectivity. Recognizing the need for security, today just about all wireless devices encrypt data at AES128 or better making them ideal for sensitive data. Wireless bridges do have a distance limitation compared to terestrial TDM data circuits, but where they can be deployed they absolutely save business a bundle.
Although unlicensed wireless microwave technology has been around for close to ten years, business has been somewhat slow to adopt it primarily due to misconceptions or myths about microwave systems. Many skeptics associate point-to-point broadband wireless bridges with consumer-grade 802.11 WiFi which it is not. Wireless bridges are a completely different technology designed to do exactly what I have described in this article. For more information regarding the benefits of wireless bridging click on the Benefits tab on this site.