June 12, 2012

Record 180 km Hybrid Diversity IP Microwave Link

Survey view from Belize toward Honduras, at 1000 m AMSL

Link between Honduras and Belize Crosses Water and Land

Last year I wrote about the world’s longest all-IP microwave link, stretching 193 km over the Atlantic Ocean in Honduras. Aviat Networks and Telecomunicaciones y Sistemas S.A. (TELSSA) designed and implemented this link together. This year, Aviat Networks and TELSSA again worked together to build another link and achieve another record—an Eclipse microwave link between Honduras and Belize that crosses 75 km of the Atlantic Ocean and 105 km of rugged terrain for a total path length of 180 km. This is a new world record for a hybrid diversity microwave link!

After the success of implementing the 193km link over water, Aviat Networks and TELSSA were eager to meet the challenge to connect Honduras and the neighboring nation of Belize using a single microwave link. Aviat Networks network engineers and TELSSA engineers were able to use their extensive knowledge of local propagation conditions, thorough understanding of long path design principles and precise installation practices to successfully implement this 180km microwave link.

Long Path Design Considerations

As outlined in the article last year for the longest all-IP hop, a deep understanding of path design considerations and experience in microwave transmission path design are necessary to successfully complete a long path design. Key considerations involved:

• The effect of antenna diameter on highly refractive paths
• Precise alignment of the antennas to mitigate the effect of refractivity
• Optimum RF and space diversity spacing to counter elevated divergent dielectric layers
• Deterministic prediction of the variations of atmospheric conditions
• Multi-path propagation delay

To read more about this world-record Hybrid Diversity IP microwave link, download the full article.

Ivan Zambrano
Senior Network Engineer
Aviat Networks

Related articles

• The Worlds Longest All-IP Microwave Link (aviatnetworks.com)
• 3 Truths about High Fade Margin in Point-to-Point Path Design (aviatnetworks.com)
• Dick Laine’s 4 Keys to Successful Transmission Engineering of Microwave Links (aviatnetworks.com)
• 10 Things to Know About the Status of Asymmetrical Wireless Backhaul (aviatnetworks.com)
• 3 Models for Microwave Link Error Performance? Laine Explains (aviatnetworks.com)