To meet growing subscriber demand, mobile operators are forced to add network capacity to enable the delivery of bandwidth-intensive data services. Nowhere are these challenges felt more acutely than in the backhaul network. As operators migrate to all-Ethernet/IP backhaul networks, fiber backhaul can provide the required capacity and beyond, wherever it is deployed; however, the fiber reach is often limited and deploying new fiber links is often prohibitively expensive. Copper has limited capacity and reach, and “traditional” microwave links suffer from spectrum congestion and limited channel sizes. Therefore, current packet-based transport networks fall short in meeting the ever increasing backhaul demands. Operators who rely on wireless backhaul are turning to new frequency bands to provide this capacity while reducing costs. The newly-allocated E-Band spectrum (71-76 GHz, 81-86 GHz and 92-95 GHz) – has many clear technological and economic advantages.
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