Cambium intros gigabit point-to-multipoint solution
Cambium Networks recently announced its Gigatower wireless broadband solution, which delivers more than 1 gigabit of capacity via a point-to-multipoint (PMP) modular design, while extending a coverage area to more than 75 square miles, according to the company.
Showcased during the 2013 Mobile World Congress this week in Barcelona, the Gigatower is based on the Canopy PMP 450 platform, according to Tom Moder, Cambium Networks’ director of product management.
“The Gigatower is really a way to deploy the PMP 450 — our unlicensed, non-line-of-sight portfolio — and you can get up to 1,080 Mb/s off of that configuration, which is really two rings of six access points that are sectorized to allow you to cover a very large number of users with a very high throughput rate,” Moder said during an interview with Urgent Communications. “It’s the first time we’ve actually had a combination, in terms of an access layer, that would really make economic sense for someone to deploy and make spectrum sense, in terms of what’s available.”
Available currently for operation on 5.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz spectrum, Cambium Networks is looking to expand the offering to work in other spectrum bands, including the 2.4 GHz unlicensed and 3.65 GHz lightly licensed airwaves, he said. In addition, the company is considering versions that would operate on 4.9 GHz spectrum for public safety, he said.
While fixed wireless solutions often are used to provide broadband to underserved rural areas that lack access to wired resources, that is not always the case, Moder said.
“Sometimes they’re actually well served, but it’s really expensive, when you look at what you’re paying for an E-1 or T-1 line versus a wireless capability,” he said.
Cambium Networks anticipates the Gigatower to appeal to several sectors, from wireless Internet providers to enterprises wanting to spread a data connection throughout a campus environment, Moder said.
“It can be anything as small as a campus environment, if they want to get connectivity from one building to another and don’t want to dig up the pavement to use some kind of wired solution,” he said. “Or, it can be in an area where you have multiple buildings some distance away.”
By doubling its throughput offering, the latest Cambium Network gear provides enough capacity to support bandwidth-intensive applications such as streaming video, he said.
“When you have that kind of capacity and that kind of reliable performance, it actually makes wireless a very viable option for those kinds of applications that frankly weren’t possible at the lower throughputs,” Moder said.