Volume 2, Number 4 – April 2010
Reinventing microwave backhaul™
IN THIS ISSUE
Why Yesterday’s Microwave
Fails Today’s Energy Providers
(and How Exalt Fills the Void)
Utilities, pipelines and other companies that own and operate critical infrastructure
require real-time monitoring and control of their operations to ensure safety and
efficiency. From power plants and distribution stations, to oil refineries and gas
processing facilities, a highly available, highly reliable and secure network
infrastructure is an imperative. For these reasons, energy and utility companies
cannot rely on public network communications infrastructures for their operations.
For years, microwave has been a preferred technology alternative in critical
infrastructure networks to backhaul data gathered from distributed locations.
But times have changed. Microwave networks, which once had to support only
voice (TDM) and low capacity SCADA data in utility networks, now need to backhaul
vast amounts of data from business expansion– new substations, new service
offerings, new IP-based applications–and other requirements such as the
SmartGrid government initiative.
Take the case of the Illinois Rural Electric
Cooperative (IREC)
A very progressive electric cooperative headquartered in Winchester, Illinois, IREC
provides electricity and Internet services to thousands of members in most rural
counties in the state. IREC recognized early on that the microwave network they
were relying on heavily for meter reading and telemetry monitoring would not
allow them to leverage their infrastructure to aggressively expand their power
distribution and broadband service offerings to rural communities throughout the state.
• Special Feature
Why Yesterday’s Microwave Fails Today’s Energy Providers
(and How Exalt Fills the Void)
• The Business of WISPs:
Competing to Win Against the Big Guys
• Sioux Falls Turns to Exalt When Fiber Fails
• City of Garland Cuts Costs and Gains Capacity with Exalt
The Business of WISPs:
Competing to Win Against the Big Guys
Successful WISPs beat the Big Guys in three key areas: services, community
involvement and technology.
WISPs shine (and grow) by offering
differentiated services.
Large service providers depend on the efficiency of delivering the same services
across their entire coverage areas — a “cookie cutter”approach. A successful
WISP tailors services to specific needs of the community, and pursues the
appropriate technologies to support them. A prime example is the development
of a public-private network serving municipal agencies and employees, public
safety, education, and other community institutions in addition to residential
subscribers. While the market for basic Internet access is price-sensitive, WISPs can
offer value-added services with higher revenue potential in the enterprise market
(high-speed access, business-critical reliability) or public safety markets (video
surveillance, emergency communications, disaster recovery).
(Cont’d on back page)
With a network consisting of 25 to 30 mile-long links interconnecting four to five
substations, and more power substations coming online, IREC faced a significant
challenge. The added capacity demands from new automated meter readers, rising
operating costs and the company’s aggressive plans to expand Internet service
coverage to underserved rural communities placed a heavy burden on
the existing infrastructure.
(Cont’d on back page)
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SPOTLIGHT ON MUNICIPAL CUSTOMERS
City of Sioux Falls Turns to Exalt When Fiber Fails
“Once we put in the first Exalt microwave link, we were very impressed not only with
its performance but also its resilience under adverse conditions like driving rain, snow
and fog,” says Hansen.
After deploying another Exalt link at a remote fire station, Hansen decided to build out
the entire wireless backhaul network using Exalt systems. For the rest of the build-out,
he standardized on Exalt radios configured for the 18 GHz frequency band. “There are
some ISPs and other vendors using microwave in our market area, and we were
starting to see some interference from their systems,” says Hansen. “We went with
the Exalt 18 GHz systems so we could have our own protected frequency.”
Network administrator Kim Hansen of the City of Sioux Falls has always been a
believer in wireless communications. “We have about 20 sites around the City, and
we have used point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wireless systems for several
years,” he says.
Over the past two years, the City’s use of networked applications has grown to include
computerized utility billing, remote backup storage for its data center, IP voice, and
other mission-critical systems. Since then, Hansen has recognized that the City needs
more bandwidth in the wireless side of the network.
Initially, Hansen tried using a millimeter wave wireless system to deliver more
bandwidth on five backhaul links. The 75 and 80 GHz radios could deliver up to
1 gigabit of data, but when the link distances exceeded two miles, it was more than
the technology could handle under adverse weather conditions. “We found that the
links weren’t very reliable during moderate to heavy rainstorms or snowstorms, even
the shorter links of one mile or less,” says Hansen. “We needed something we could
really count on.”
Another challenge facing the city: its harsh winters mean frozen ground, and with it
frozen fiber optic lines. “Every winter the ground freezes, and we have fiber that breaks,”
says Hansen.“So we have to dig it up when the ground thaws in the spring and repair it.”
Exalt makes the connection
On a recommendation from Sioux Falls wireless systems consultant Calhoun
Communications, Hansen decided to try an Exalt microwave backhaul system on one
link in the network during the spring of 2009. Calhoun Communications deployed an
all-outdoor Exalt microwave radio system between the Utilities Department building
and the City Hall, which houses the data center. The link was provisioned for 100 Mbps
Ethernet, as compared to the 15 Mbps that the old wireless technology provided.
Today most of the offices in the city are connected via wireless, and the backhaul
network uses Exalt systems exclusively. At some remote sites, the Exalt microwave
system is both a backhaul node as well as that site’s connection to the network, while
other sites continue to use the old point-to-multipoint system as a link with backhaul
aggregation points. The network is configured as a fault-tolerant ring to further boost
its resilience.
Fiber takes a back seat
Since their deployment in 2009, the Exalt microwave backhaul systems have been
exposed to extremes of hot and cold temperatures as well as rain, sleet, fog and snow,
and nothing has interrupted their service. Hansen can’t say the same for his legacy
fiber backbone. “Our fiber network is one gigabit, but a lot of our connections went
down this winter when it got to almost 30 below zero,” he says. “We cut over to the
Exalt 100-megabit microwave network, and we have been using that exclusively
with no impact on application performance.”
If bandwidth does become an issue in the future, Hansen can always increase it by
simply purchasing additional license keys for the Exalt systems, or he can use Exalt
capacity aggregation to connect additional radios and scale up to 1 gigabit per
second or more on any link.
Thanks to the proven reliability of Exalt microwave systems, the City of Sioux Falls
may even reconsider whether to continue spending money every spring to repair its
fiber plant. “We might forego repairing some of the fiber links and just use wireless
because it’s been totally reliable,” says Hansen.
Although it once considered fiber to be the gold standard for reliable connectivity,
the City of Sioux Falls has learned that Exalt’s advanced microwave backhaul
systems are even better.
“Our fiber network is one gigabit, but a lot of our connections went
down this winter when it got to almost 30 below zero. We cut over
to the Exalt 100-megabit microwave network, and we have been
using that exclusively with no impact on application performance.”
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SPOTLIGHT ON MUNICIPAL CUSTOMERS
City of Garland Cuts Costs and Gains
Bandwidth with Exalt
Maintaining responsive city services
in Garland has meant networking the City’s 30-plus facilities using
applications from computer-aided
police/fire dispatch and public safety
radio traffic to IP voice and office
productivity. The City uses fiber to
connect a few major sites such as
its network operations centers, but
many buildings such as police and
fire stations and recreation centers are
linked via slow-speed leased T1 lines.
When Jonathan Morgan took over as
the City’s IT radio communications manager in 2008, he began analyzing the
T1-based network and comparing it against microwave backhaul.
“I’ve done microwave deployments in previous jobs so I was familiar with
the technology,” says Morgan. “We had 16 locations on T1, and I researched
microwave products to replace them because we needed to upgrade the
bandwidth, and it was really cost-prohibitive lease enough T1s to meet
our requirements.”
Prior familiarity with competitive microwave backhaul products quickly led
Morgan to select Exalt systems for the initial deployments. “I have used
products from many different vendors, but Exalt’s features really stand out
from the rest,” he says. Among the advantages he cites are scalability,
tunability, low latency and a built-in spectrum analyzer.
Cost-effective deployment with flawless reliability
Morgan and his team deployed and configured the Exalt radio systems
themselves and relied on a contractor only for mounting the antennas.
The systems span network hops up to 2.5 miles. Since initial deployments in
early 2009, the Exalt systems have been completely reliable.
“We have had no issues with the equipment or link reliability,” Morgan
says. “We’re seeing network speeds up to ten times faster than we had with
our T1-based links, and we’re only using the base configuration of 27 Mbps.
This means that city employees can download and upload files much more
quickly, which in turn allows us to improve our services to the citizens
of Garland.”
Scalability and ROI
With the initial systems working flawlessly, Morgan will soon be adding
new Exalt systems to his network. These will provide additional Ethernet
connectivity for key communications towers and will also act as standby
network pathways in the event of a fiber cut.
Morgan thinks the
microwave decision
was the right one.
“With the Exalt
systems, I can quickly
install multiple hops,
and the systems pay
for themselves in a
year,” he says. “We
can scale up the
bandwidth whenever
we want, so we will
be able to add more
data-intensive
applications in
the future.”
By building out its municipal communications network with Exalt microwave
backhaul systems, the City of Garland has eliminated recurring leased line
charges while enabling reliable and highly scalable capacity for current and
future applications. The Exalt systems are helping the City of Garland maintain
the high municipal service levels that make it a great place to live, while
saving the City money in the process.
“We’re seeing network speeds up to ten times faster than we
had with our T1-based links, and we’re only using the base
configuration of 27 Mbps. This means that city employees can
download and upload files much more quickly, which in turn
allows us to improve our services to the citizens of Garland.”
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The Business of WISPs (Cont’d from front page)
WISPs are part of the communities they serve.
The truth is that many of the Big Guys falter when they enter a new market using
the same marketing approach they’re using everywhere else. (In fact, one of the
Big Guys deploying service in multiple rural communities recently admitted that
they are having a difficult time competing against the more local WISPs.) Customers
generally perceive a local WISP to be more in tune with the community it serves,
and feel more comfortable doing business with someone they know locally.
WISPs have the edge over larger service providers
in technology agility.
A WISP is naturally going to be more familiar with the particular geographic terrain
in the local area — and challenging terrain is a major reason why many parts of
the country do not have broadband service. Equally important, a WISP will have
access to a wider range of technologies to customize solutions for that terrain.
Larger providers are often committed to specific vendor contracts and types of
equipment, limiting their abilities to ensure coverage.
And when the subject is technology, it’s all
about backhaul.
When it comes to backhaul, WISPs want to know:
 How can we respond quickly and profitably to our customers who are
clamoring for lower Internet access costs, faster speeds and more features?
 How can we eliminate the monthly recurring costs and backhaul bottlenecks
from leased lines? They’re expensive, unreliable and do not scale.
 How can we expand our network and increase capacity on our schedule and
within our budget?
Special Feature (Cont’d from front page)
Adding to this burden was old and failing microwave radio equipment and growing
interference that had begun to severely affect the reliability of the legacy wireless
network. The lack of remote management capabilities and frequent truck rolls
required to re-establish connectivity dramatically increased maintenance costs and
downtime. To compound the problem, spares for legacy microwave systems could
no longer be procured, and support for them was scarce. IREC knew the company
needed a better solution for its wireless backhaul infrastructure.
The challenges quickly turned into opportunities for IREC. The company partnered
with Exalt and Wireless Data Systems (WDS) of Wilmington, NC, to deploy a unique
solution that not only addressed IREC’s existing operations and business expansion
challenges, but provided more than ample room for growth.
Exalt responds to all these questions – and more – with our newest product
platform, ExtendAir®. Exalt ExtendAir systems eliminate the need for leased lines
and substantially reduce the cost of owning and operating the network. For WISPs
– whose networks often span water, forests and hills, all subject to unpredictable
weather – ExtendAir systems are the highest performance, lowest cost microwave
radio systems in the industry, offering “five-nines”availability over greater distances.
Plus ExtendAir provides WISPs a powerful tool to support SLAs – up to three
different customers in the same building at three different service levels!. ExtendAir
is tower-friendly, too, weighing in at only 8 pounds and measuring about the size of
a small pizza box. This means lower installation costs and a faster time-to-market.
And because a single ExtendAir radio can spare an entire band at both ends of the
link, sparing costs are reduced from 50% - 90%.
With ExtendAir, WISPs can make all the right moves to achieve a faster return on
investment, own their networks, grow and serve a loyal subscriber base, and beat
the Big Guys at their own game.
Exalt ExtendAir systems
offer WISPs a lower cost to
compete against the Big Guys.
To learn more, visit http://www.
exaltcom.com/ExtendAir-Global.aspx
With Exalt microwave radio systems, IREC has been able to interconnect power
substations with up to 100 Mbps Ethernet capacity to support automated metering
and Internet subscriber traffic while replacing costly and overloaded T1 lines.
Plus Exalt delivered a solution that allows collocation of multiple systems at
200 Mbps aggregate throughput, all on the same channels.
The Role of Exalt in Critical Infrastructure Networks
As the complexity of utility and other critical infrastructure networks continues to grow, so does the need for a robust and scalable backhaul network with
pay-as-you-grow flexibility. And that’s where Exalt steps in, with 21st century
microwave backhaul systems that support the network backhaul requirements of
today’s energy and utility companies. For more information about Exalt systems,
visit http://www.exaltcom.com/exalt-product-line-overview.aspx
Exalt Communications, Inc., 580 Division Street, Campbell, CA 95008
Produced in the United States of America.
More details on Exalt point-to-point microwave radio systems may be found at:
www.exaltcom.com
© 2010 Exalt Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Exalt Communications, the Exalt logo, CarrierTDD, ExaltSync and
ExtendAir are trademarks of Exalt Communications, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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