To qualify for RFOD funding, each winning bidder should submit FCC Long Form 683 with details about its operation, legal, funding, and technical aspects of the solution.
There has been a ton of talk about the RDOF auction, who won and what services they are targeting. For those winners who promise to deliver Gigabit services, much of the attention has been on using fiber as the connectivity solution. However as many may not be aware, there are wireless solutions available today that are widely used to deliver gigabit services. It is another tool in the service providers arsenal to provide connectivity, along with fiber and other technologies.
Spectrum Access – Long Form 683
Identify the spectrum band(s) that will be used for the last mile, backhaul, and any other part of the network and identify which bands each part of the network will be deployed in.
Describe the total amount of uplink and downlink bandwidth (in megahertz) that is available and supported by mmWave systems in each spectrum band.
To comply with RDOF requirements and deliver Gigabit capacity with low latency using Gigabit Wireless Solutions, the service provider will utilize both 60GHz (V Band) and/or 70/80 GHz (E Band) spectrum.
The V Band frequency band ranges between 57GHz to 71GHz and offers 14GHz of a license-free spectrum. There are many commercially available point-to-point and point-to-multipoint products, operating in this band and able to deliver multi-gigabit services.
E band is defined as a paired spectrum between 71-76 GHz and 81-86GHz. This is a lightly licensed band, requires link registration but provides the benefit of registered microwave radio. The cost of the license is $75/10 years per point-to-point link.
Technology and System Design Description
Siklu offers a broad portfolio of Gigabit solutions, each designed for a specific application and/or portion of the network. For high capacity, point-to-point connections, be they backhaul or direct access to a large MDU or facility, EtherHaul™ radios, and more specifically the EtherHaul™ 8010 operating in the E band are the right choices.
E-band PtP radio: EH-8010
These devices are point-to-point radios that are usually installed on towers or roof-tops.
Building Blocks of a Gigabit Wireless mmWave Solution: Point to Point
Connecting the homes or residential units can be accomplished with Siklu’s Terragraph mesh product line. The MultiHaul™ TG solution consists of a hub or Distribution Node (DN), and Terminal Unit (TU).
V-band Mesh-PtMP radio: MH-N366
These devices are usually deployed at the street level or single-family home rooftops, and bridge the last 1,000 ft to deliver gigabit capacity to the end-users.
MH-N366:
TU – 265:
Typical Topologies using Siklu point to point and Mesh systems
While every network is unique based on the specific location of customers, Internet POPs, terrain, and more, in this next section we present two generic topologies that are commonly used.
Gigabit to isolated locations – suitable for up to 10 locations
This solution relies on gigabit point-to-point radios. One radio is installed on a tower or a tall building that has a fiber point of presence. The second side is installed on the customer premise.
To provide the gigabit service the radios should operate in mmWave frequency and can co-exist with other radios in this band without causing interference. The solution will provide a gigabit service of 10Gbps Full Duplex with a radius of up to 6 miles. This requires a single cable installation supplying PoE or DC power.
Gigabit to pocket communities – suitable for 100’s of locations
This use case assumes some level of residential density. The solution includes 2 components: the backhaul link that is described in the previous paragraph and the mesh access network.
The DN provides 360 coverage and a range of up to 1,000 ft. The DN can serve up to 60, gigabit-capable TUs. This is the most cost-efficient technology to provide gigabit access. The $/home passed starts from $100.
Terrestrial Fixed Wireless (TFW) Long Form Requirements
Per the referenced RDOF Public Notice, and specifically for the section covering Terrestrial Fixed Wireless networks, the response must contain:
Actual RDOF questions and responses are listed below point by point.
Provide the calculations used, for each performance tier and frequency band, to design the last-mile link budgets in both the upload and download directions at the cell edge, using the technical specifications of the expected base station and customer premise equipment. Submit assumptions regarding fading statistics, cell edge probability of coverage, and cell loading for each relevant performance tier.
Provide coverage maps for the planned and/or existing networks that will be used to meet the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund public interest obligations, indicating where the upload and download speeds will meet or exceed the relevant performance tier speed(s).
Siklu has developed a wireless planning tool, WiNDE, to simplify the planning process of advanced gigabit wireless networks.
With WiNDE you can design a gigabit wireless network using the most advanced Terragraph technology in just a matter of minutes. The tool generates BOMs and instantly calculates the performance of every element of the network.