E-band

Multi-Band – The Future of 5G Transport

The Problem

E-Band Lacks Availability in Some Cases

For years, E-Band has been touted as the next big thing. Likewise, 80GHz technology and solutions have been around for several years, yet the demand has not taken off. Why is that? Well, there are a few excellent reasons:

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- August 29, 2019
Design Your Multi-Band Links in AviatCloud

Aviat Design, Aviat’s cloud-based link planning application, supports WTM 4800 E-Band and Multi-band designs. Aviat Design is the industry’s first and only integrated Multi-band link design solution showing a combined view of availability and capacity for the link. This enables easy, fast, intuitive E-Band and Multi-Band designs (all specs included, no pathloss files to download or update, easy cloud access). Popular design tools will require 2 separate link calculations for Multi-Band, and will not result in a combined design for the link, making it virtually impossible to understand the expected link performance or capacity or estimate the proper antenna size. Aviat Design is FREE for use at www.aviatcloud.com.

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- August 15, 2019
Multi-Band means high value at a cost that makes sense

Multi-Band involves combining E-Band (70-80GHz) with traditional microwave (6-42GHz) on a single microwave link, usually with a single antenna on each end. Multi-Band drastically improves availability and distance of E-Band links and addresses other issues like pole sway and antenna alignment. If you are thinking of E-Band or microwave, consider Multi-Band, in particular single-box Multi-Band. Check out our infographic below to find out how single-box Multi-Band means high value at a cost that makes sense.

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- August 9, 2019
AT&T, T-Mobile Agree on the Future of Small Cell

AT&T and T-Mobile recently filed comments with the FCC that will enable small cell backhaul in urban cores for greater subscriber connectivity.

In the last few weeks, the future prospects of small cell antennas got brighter and shrank at the same time. AT&T and T-Mobile both filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in support of an industry-wide waiver of rules against flat-panel antennas for backhaul radios in the 70-80GHz bands. Currently, out-of-date FCC regulations about antenna radiation patterns hold back development and deployment of this type of equipment that urban dwellers will find acceptable in big city cores.

The current rules effectively call for the use of parabolic antennas that will be unsightly and would violate the aesthetics considerations and zoning regulations in many city core locations—precisely the type of environment that 70-80GHz radios exist to service. While the FCC regulations seem to necessitate parabolic antennas to keep radio beams focused and from interfering with equipment in the vicinity that uses the same wavelengths, mobile subscribers prefer more visually friendly solutions.

How to get from here to there
For the last few years, Aviat Networks has been working with the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition and others to get the FCC to update its regulations in the 70-80GHz bands. The problem: when the FCC promulgated these rules, the idea had never occurred to anyone that these bands would ever service small cell applications. And the applications that the FCC’s 70-80GHz rules were designed to support never materialized, with only 5,500 links registered in this spectrum since 2005, according to T-Mobile.

However, with this breakthrough in support from Tier 1 operators like AT&T and T-Mobile, the FCC should feel reassured that granting the waiver to the antenna rules for 70-80GHz bands is in the best interest of all the wireless industry service providers. And with OEMs in addition to Aviat asking for the waiver, no specific vendor will be favored. We urge other wireless service providers, communications equipment OEMs, subscribers and anyone else interested in moving forward as fast as the technology can go to also contact the FCC about granting this industry-wide waiver.

In the meantime, to learn more about urbanized small cell backhaul in the 70-80GHz bands, please contact us.

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- December 18, 2015
Telecom Industry Participants call on FCC for E-band Action

While U.S. regulators decide on flat-panel antenna rules for E-band, operators and subscribers walk a tightrope of red tape.

Back in April the telecom experts over at CommLawBlog weighed in on a simmering issue in the 70-80GHz radio space. Since October 2012, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has mulled over a motion by the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC) to relax rules for flat panel antennas as well as a 2013 waiver to the existing rules while it considers a new rulemaking.

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- May 22, 2015
More on E-band Backhaul: a Tale of Two Operators

Tight city spaces will need small E-band radios for microcell backhaul. Photo credit: La Citta Vita / Foter / CC BY-SA

The last time we were together, we discussed the prospects for urban backhaul in 2014. True, it will be a very exciting time in the 70 GHz and 80 GHz E-band frequencies. The promise of small cells is finally coming to fruition after the hype cycle had all but chewed and spit them out. Remember when you first heard of DSL and cable modem? By the time you could get one, the media had stopped talking about them for at least two years. But we’re digressing.

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- January 31, 2014
Urban Backhaul with 70-80GHz E-band Radios

Urban infrastructure for E-band radio. Photo credit: christine592 / Foter.com / CC BY-ND

For years and years, microwave and millimeterwave radio technologies have coexisted without very much overlap in either their markets or applications. Microwave radio served telephone company needs (e.g., long distance backhaul, mobile access aggregation) for the bulk of its implementations with some vertical deployments for oil and gas, public safety and utilities organizations. Typically, licensed bands in service ranged from 6GHz to 42GHz—with 11GHz and under popular for long haul; 18-38GHz trendy for short urban hops. Generally, millimeterwave radio is considered to be between the 60GHz and 80GHz bands and found its applications confined to those for intra-campus communication from building to building for universities, civic centers, other government conglomerations and large, spread-out (i.e., 1 to 5 miles) corporate facilities.

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- January 17, 2014