WAN without wires: the rise and rise of licensed wireless networks

Does your enterprise network really need all those wires? Discover how major advancements in microwave radio technology have given licensed wireless the speed, reliability and resilience that make it a natural choice for your WAN.
No two enterprises or public sector bodies face exactly the same business challenges. But what they all have in common is the need for a rock-solid enterprise network to support increasingly heavy, increasingly critical traffic flows, among users whose thirst for bandwidth shows no signs of abating. Speed, reliability, cost, security and ease of maintenance of an enterprise network are all crucial, and IT managers and business management rightly have these criteria front of mind when considering their options.
And the list of options is substantial. DSL, fibre, licensed and unlicensed wireless and even leased lines endure as popular choices for data transmission technologies in the wide area network.Yet the contender with arguably the biggest range of benefits to offer is also largely underutilised in Ireland: licensed wireless.
What's licensed wireless?
Licensed wireless networks use microwave radio technology to securely transmit data at up to 1Gbps between two or more sites. Powerful, tightly focused radio antennae communicate by line-of-sight paths that have been carefully designed by experienced engineers; networks themselves can span hundreds of kilometres, with individual hops of up to 90km. The transmission devices at the endpoints exchange data on pre-defined channels for which government-issued licences are required.
And because the endpoints transmit on licensed frequencies, performance is guaranteed. Unlike unlicensed wireless networks, such as those built on WiFi, licensed wireless networks can deliver QoS and non-interference guarantees, offering solid business assurance for mission-critical and latency-sensitive traffic such as voice and video.
Licensed wireless offers exceptionally wide geographic reach and can provide extremely high bandwidth. The technology has made a name for itself by bringing unprecedented bandwidth to remote areas, including parts of the Gaeltacht, where fibre could never affordably reach. Enterprises and public sector bodies are also increasingly turning to licensed wireless because its 1Gbps speeds are available at an affordable price point. The ease of installation is also a key advantage, with no need for ground works. If it's so good, why isn't licensed wireless everywhere?
Actually, it is everywhere. It's the technology that mobile operators, for instance, use for backhaul, connecting their network of base stations to their core network.What's new with the technology is its availability: over the last five years, licensed wireless has become more accessible outside the telecoms industry, for two reasons. First, licensed wireless network operators have completed build-out of their own networks, which are now ready to service enterprise clients.
Second, and more important, the bandwidth has arrived. One Dublin-based engineer who has tracked the development of microwave radio over more than two decades notes that the last few years have seen the most exciting developments yet in terms of bandwidth expansion.
"In the same way that copper telephone lines are now able to carry reasonably high-speed traffic with DSL, telecommunications engineers have made major strides with the modulation equipment that transmits microwave radio signals," explains Owen Drumm, an electronics design engineer specialising in microwave radio. "The developments in microwave radio happened in much the same way as those which have allowed the capacity of telephone lines to be extended. These developments have allowed the capacity of the airwaves to be extended. It's all about making better use of a single cycle of wave energy."
Making your business case for licensed wireless If you're considering your options for an updated primary or backup network for your enterprise, here are the Top Five takeaways to remember about licensed wireless:
1. Excellent signal quality and strength: licensed wireless is radio, but not as you know it. Forget your experiences of FM radio, or even WiFi and Bluetooth, where dropped lines and interference are commonplace. Those are all broadcast technologies, with antennae spanning 360°, as the receiver never knows where the transmission is coming from. As Drumm explains it, licensed wireless delivers a "laserlike link" between two points. "A licensed point-to-point wireless link is not omnidirectional," he notes. "It's more like a laser than a lightbulb. There's an immense difference in the quality and stability of the signal compared to any other radio technology you may have experience of."
2. Field tested for quality: existing users of licensed wireless networks report very low latency and jitter, with performance equivalent to fibre. Users span sectors including government, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, media and broadcasting, transport, financial services, telecommunications and hospitality.
3. Five nines availability: licensed wireless networks can be engineered to guarantee 99.999% uptime and in practice often exceed this. In fact the technology is now routinely used as an enhancement to existing fibre-based WANs to increase their overall uptime. Always enquire as to the certification and experience of the link design engineers who will plan your licensed wireless network. Their expertise will be critical in delivering high availability and reliability.
4. A managed service to decrease the burden on your team: reputable licensed wireless providers typically offer a complete managed service, designing, installing and proactively monitoring uptime and usage of the network.
5. Bandwidth on demand: older licensed wireless networks typically offered bandwidth of around 2 Mb per second. Developments in the technology mean it is now easy to deliver up to 1Gbps to the building, with the important extra benefit of scalability. Like fibre solutions, the bandwidth on a licensed wireless can be increased or decreased quickly and easily, offering important growing room and flexibility for future needs or seasonal variations in bandwidth requirements.
There's no doubt that the age of licensed wireless is upon us. All that remains to be seen is which enterprises will be among the first to exploit it as a competitive advantage.For more information and white papers on licensed wireless technology, visit AirSpeed Telecom.www.airspeed.ie
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