PilsFree
PilsFree operates probably the largest community network in the Czech Republic. The community has over 38,000 members connected in Pilsen and the surrounding area. There are about 800 microwave links deployed in the network, of which more than 300 are in the 80 GHz band.
In PilsFree, RAy3-80 was tested from January to April 2023 on a shorter link of 0.5 km with 60 cm Jirous antennas. The aim was both to debug the firmware and to test the operation of the new link from the rooftop, where there are a total of eight TDD and FDD links in the 80 GHz band. There were no active or passive interference problems, but problems were found in the operation of ATPC and ACMB, which RACOM gradually fixed in subsequent firmware versions during the testing.
Subsequently, a longer link of 1.3 km was built, where a group of administrators and active members tried to compare RAy3-80 with similar devices from other manufacturers (Ericsson, Siklu, Ceragon) with 10 Gb/s capacity on the same link and the same antennas. The real values from the link were compared with the data given in the manufacturers’ documentation. Here no discrepancies were found between reality and the datasheets.
The tests in Pilsen also focused on comparing the sensitivity and RF power performance of the individual links. The declared worse sensitivity of RAy3-80 is sufficiently compensated by higher output power and in the overall comparison with most of the links of other manufacturers RAy3-80 does not lag behind and performs similarly — with the same size of antennas it is possible to build the same long route with the same availability.
