MIMOtech has launched Starburst Janus, an ultra high capacity packet radio for last mile backhaul, which utilizes an innovative multi-antenna technology yielding a spectral efficiency of 25b/s per Hz.

Backhaul capacity is one of the major challenges facing LTE/LTE-A operators today as they roll out networks and respond to increasing data traffic and growing subscriber numbers. Starburst Janus’ ultra high capacity enables data rates of several Gb/s to be achieved on a single frequency channel. Starburst Janus employs line-of-sight (LoS) 4x4 MIMO and parallel radio processing, allowing a 100 percent improvement in spectral usage and significantly improving operators’ total cost of ownership (TCO).

“Starburst Janus offers double the performance of traditional non-line of sight MIMO  measured in either capacity or distance  coupled with a significantly lower cost per bit transported,” said Geoff Carey, Director at MIMOtech. “Starburst Janus also needs significantly smaller antenna spacing than other LoS MIMO products on the market, which is a massive advantage for tower or rooftop applications where mounting space comes at a premium.”

 Janus employs a novel, patented configuration of LoS MIMO that has a small form factor. It uses two cross-polarised antennas spaced 1.5 m apart, resulting in a mechanical configuration occupying a space that is comparable to that of a LTE sector antenna. Furthermore it uses a range of advanced microwave technologies that help operators to satisfy the growing demand for capacity  co-channel dual polarization (CCDP) with XPIC technology (utilizing the different polarizations of a frequency channel); higher order modulation schemes up to 1024 QAM; high efficiency radio medium access control (MAC); asymmetrical bandwidth delivery; and Layer 1 link aggregation (Multi-Carrier Adaptive Bandwidth Control). All of these techniques have been used to improve spectral efficiency and thus boost microwave capacity; however LoS MIMO offers a further 100 percent improvement in spectral efficiency over and above these techniques alone.