Fiber and Wireless Transport- A Match Made in Heaven

Though fibre transmission and wireless point-to-point connectivity are sometimes considered competing technologies, a combination of the two is not such a bad idea.

In a blog posted a couple of months ago we compared alternative transport options for enterprise-access services: laying down fibre, leasing dark-fibre or dedicated capacity and establishing a wireless connection.

When looking at the broader scope of a transport network, the trade-off between the enormous capacity available with optical fibre and the merits of wireless transmission (cost-effective, easy and fast to deploy, highly reliable and scalable) needs to be weighed on a case-by-case basis.

This is due to the variety of requirements across different network domains and deployment scenarios.

For that reason, neither all-wireless nor all-fibre approaches are optimal, and a hybrid fibre-wireless architecture typically brings the best results to your business.

The combination between fibre transport and wireless transmission can be achieved based on several domains:

Sub-network domain: The decision on the type of transmission is based on the sub-network. Core and backbone sites are covered with fibre as they are less geo-dynamic and require higher capacity. Access and aggregation sites are connected with wireless transmission, which fits the agile nature of these sub-networks.

Time-capacity domain: Wireless transmission is commissioned first to any site in the network, for cost-effectiveness and time to market, and later on a fibre connection is established. The fibre connection timing is based either on the time it takes to deploy the fibre infrastructure (in the case of high capacity requirements from day one) or on the growth in capacity requirement. Once a fibre connection is established, the wireless connection can be relocated to a new site or maintained as a secondary, resilient connection.

Service-redundancy domain: This is typically implemented in the backbone and in sites running high-priority traffic, as well as with large enterprise customers. The wireless connection serves here as a completion of a ring topology or as a 1+1 backup to a fibre path. This typically calls for an ultra-high capacity wireless connection (an E-band link or a 4x4 LoS MIMO microwave connection) that provides an alternate path in situations such as fibre cuts, eliminating the need for doubling the investment in fibre infrastructure.

To conclude, when combining fibre and wireless transport, you can leverage the strengths and benefits of each technology while keeping your business plan intact.

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