December 23, 2020
Want to Lower Your Total Cost for Rural Broadband and 5G? Consider Multi-Band
Is traditional microwave dead? With the advent of Multi-Band, it could be. Why accept an old solution when you can have so much more by combining E-Band and traditional microwave into a single-box unit. Governments are taking action across the world to connect homes and businesses in rural areas to the rest of the world. From the 7-year action plan devised by National Broadband Ireland (NBI) to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) $9.2 billion newly implemented Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, there is a worldwide focus on the connectedness of rural areas. As capacity demands increase rapidly for rural broadband networks, a better solution than traditional microwave is needed.
Multi-band is the ideal solution because it takes advantage of a “sweet spot” in a way that microwave cannot achieve. 90% of link distances from new deployments are less than 10 km in length. As represented in Figure 1, Multi-Band can achieve up to 10 Gbps in capacity more consistently at lengths less than 10 km compared to traditional microwave.
Rural broadband technology options by capacity and distance
Figure 1
One of the main advantages of Multi-Band is the capacity upgrade lifecycle, offering software scalable capacity with no additional hardware deployments needed – see Figure 2. For instance, every time you need to increase capacity for microwave with a maximum capacity up to 2 Gbps, each capacity step requires additional frequency channels, hardware deployment, and a tower climb required each time.
Meanwhile, Multi-Band requires a hardware deployment only at the initial deployment and offers maximum capacity up to 10 Gbps. Capacity upgrades are made via software downloads purchased online through Aviat Cloud at www.aviatcloud.com. Because the process is completed all online, it requires no site visits and no tower climbs, meaning no additional costs. Only Multi-Band can help you achieve the capacity levels that your rural broadband networks need.
Capacity upgrades: microwave vs multi-band
Figure 2
In summary, multi-band:
- Combines E-band and microwave radios in a single enclosure
- Delivers the high capacity of E-Band with the much longer distance of microwave (up to 4x)
- Dramatically lowers spectrum fees where costs are high for microwave bands
- Capacities up to 10Gbps with simple online purchase(s) and software license download(s)
- No additional site visits, hardware, or spectrum licenses required for capacity increases
- Easy to deploy and manage