You’d be forgiven for looking up into the sky, seeing its infinite space and thinking that it has infinite capacity. Unfortunately, when it comes to mobile data, and particularly in developing countries, service providers are struggling to keep up with demand, and the bubble looks increasingly likely to burst. RADWIN technology, however, is set up to relieve the turgor pressure on the local industry in a novel way.
Data transfer is not infinite, and there is only a limited spectrum of usage through the air, especially when it comes to mobile networks. Once that spectrum is operating at capacity, there is no spectrum left.
While the setup is geared towards mobile users, and there is only so much data one can use on a mobile device, research indicates that it is the relatively smaller number of ‘fixed’ home users who clog the LTE spectrum, slowing it down for other users in their vicinity. LTE is also set up in an area-specific manner. What this means is that if one or two heavy users are absorbing a lot of data at a given time, it will slow down the experience for all the other users in the spectrum in the vicinity.
It would then stand to reason that if the operator were to take the heavy users out of the spectrum, the network bottleneck would be alleviated. The solution sounds simple, but we cannot simply relegate the heavy internet users to the world of the internet-less, especially not when they’re paying for the service.
Fortunately, there is a less invasive, more beneficial and completely novel solution.
That solution is multi-point broadband wireless access; instead of placing heavy fixed users on the LTE network and allowing them access to the LTE spectrum, operators can simply move those users over to a broadband wireless networks - and now technological innovation has improved such a system’s spectrum efficiency and ability to cope with interference. Mobile service providers are easily able to pinpoint such data units which remain in a fixed position in a home or an office, and offer the user an option to switch to broadband wireless access.
Innovative companies are throwing money into the deployment of wireless broadband access networks as they are seen as more favourable and easier to set up and maintain than fiber.
There are multiple other factors to consider given that not all wireless broadband access networks are identical. For example: their capacity, range, number of towers and base stations required, reliability, sustainability, costs, scales etc… are all distinguishable factors between competing systems.
RADWIN however, has developed a JET™ PtMP carrier-class solution which sets the new standard of all the above factors. While most systems still use 90 degree antennas, the RADWIN JET employs the industry’s first bi-directional beamforming technology (enabled by Bi-Beam™).
RADWIN equipment is also built to last - meaning network operators are likely to spend less time servicing their equipment - and because of RADWIN’s carrier-class design, the equipment is ready for scaling to broad use at an affordable cost.
In 2017, this is the technology that is set to throw oil into the gears of the broadband market in developing countries and improve access to both heavy fixed users as well as mobile LTE users.