Highlights
- RAy3, 18 GHz
- WISP in New Zealand
- Rural areas
- Challenging conditions
- Backhaul links
- Long distances, 1 Gb/s
KiwiWifi is a 100% New Zealand owned Rural Wireless Broadband Provider based in Nelson, New Zealand and servicing communities throughout the Nelson and Tasman regions at the top of New Zealand’s South Island. They have independent and purpose-built wireless networks that deliver reliable high speed wireless Internet in hard to reach places.
New Zealand has set itself nationwide goals to improve rural connectivity and remove black spots. The aim of this investment in infrastructure is to boost rural productivity through precision agriculture and horticulture, improve the safety of search rescue in remote areas, and to allow our farmers and farming practices to continue to evolve and prosper by enabling the use of leading-edge digital technologies irrespective of location.
KiwiWifi have looked to RACOM’s RAy3 Microwave links to establish new links over this tough terrain. The RAy3 is well regarded for its reliability in challenging conditions and stood out as the perfect option to achieve KiwiWifi’s requirements.
The NZ partner of RACOM, Holland Communications, has worked alongside KiwiWifi to provide the equipment required, pre and after sales support where it has been needed.
The team at KiwiWifi completed by 2023 the installation of four links using RAy3 at 18 GHz band and were impressed with ease of installation and at the operational results. They have since secured RACOM equipment for the next links.
RACOM Microwave links have also been acquired by several other New Zealand Wireless Internet Service Providers, through Holland Communications, for installation in the Otago, Marlborough and Wairarapa regions.
RACOM has been working diligently to penetrate the US market with its microwave links since 2016. It has succeeded to a greater extent in this most demanding market in 2022 with RAy3 for the 24 and 18 GHz bands with 1 Gbps speed.
Much of the credit for this goes to our partner Alliance Corporation, one of our distributors and partners for the US and Canada. Alliance is one of the largest suppliers to the WISP market. Its customers include Xchange Telecom, which among other things operates Skywire Networks, one of the largest Internet providers in New York City.
Most people don’t realize that broadband density in New York City, the largest city in the world, is lower than in Lagos, Nigeria, for example. Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens are often called NYC’s digital deserts because so few commercial buildings are equipped with fiber optics or quality broadband.
In most places in Manhattan, it is impossible to install fiber optic cables underground, so broadband is mostly handled wirelessly over microwave links. This leads to extreme utilization of the radio spectrum and enormous interference, especially in unlicensed bands such as 24 GHz.
Skywire Networks also faces occupancy and interference in the 24 GHz band. They have tried various vendors over the years looking for a trusted equipment vendor with products that would be robust and operate reliably in the crowded skies of Manhattan.
At the recommendation of Alliance, they tested the RAy3-24 and were convinced by the results. The RAy reliably transferred 1 Gbps in locations where other links were failing. The customer also appreciates the asymmetric channel option, which allows maximum spectrum utilization even when part of the bandwidth is used by other links or interfered.
This RAy link from the Central Park area to Bronx is now one of many that have been deployed throughout several boroughs of NYC by Skywire. The RAy is now an integral part of their ever growing network.
CloudNet IT-Solutions Ltd is a System Integrator / Wireless Internet Service Provider. Its networks are specifically designed to meet the needs of a broad spectrum of customers. It delivers interconnectivity to problematic and hard to reach areas in the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland providing domestic ISP services as part of the UK Government National Broadband strategy to provide 30 Mb into every home. It also provides onshore windfarms with a connection to Scottish and Southern Energy plc (SSE).
CloudNet even provided the broadband network that underpinned transmission of rural 5G traffic in the ‘5G rural first’ project, delivering backhaul connectivity for testbeds and trials to exploit 5G benefits for rural communities and industries like agriculture, broadcasting and utilities.
The biggest issues in the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland are always weather, the topography and the robustness and reliability of microwave links used. Historically, most links didn’t last more than three months without serious corrosion and the need for frequent, costly maintenance. That is, until RACOM’s RAy3 microwave link was trialled!
Thanks to its industrial hardened design and use of heavy-duty industrial components, RAy3 has withstood everything the North Atlantic could throw at it through rain or shine. Apart from some early ‘tweaking’ of the set up to change parameter settings, the radios have continued operating maintenance free. The first link was installed in the Spring of 2018 and is still on site without the need for any hardware maintenance!
Many RACOM links are across bodies of open water connecting island communities. Thanks to RAy’s exceptional robustness against noise and interference, there have been no reflection issues with the signal and CloudNet have maintained the high levels of service and availability they have built their reputation on.
RAy3, with its higher specifications and 1 Gbps speed capability is now a firm part of the network covering the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland and provides stable and maintenance free connection in environmentally challenging conditions.
Ripplecom operates the largest fixed wireless network in Ireland. It is a Limerick-based technology solutions provider, delivering broadband, voice and other IT services to business and private customers. Ripplecom combines industry expertise with their leading network technologies to provide complete and tailored business solutions for connectivity, voice, security and data backup that help drive business growth. In 2017 Ripplecom’s network is providing services to 2,000 business and 4,000 private households with customer numbers growing continuously.
Ripplecom uses RAy microwave links as part of its product portfolio since 2015 and by end 2017 had about 100 links installed. The links are mainly used for Backhaul of Fixed Wireless Access Sectors, facilitating the delivery of dedicated synchronous bandwidth to corporate customers. Renowned for its exceptional system gain and resistance to disturbances, RAy provides a perfect solution for this type of application. In some instances the links are also used for high speed last mile connections.
RAy microwave units excel in their technical parameters, professional design, exceptional reliability and quality. However, Ripplecom’s field engineers like working with this unit because of another feature of the product. They really like RACOM RAy microwave units because they are so easy to configure and set up compared with other products in the Microwave space.
They are quoted as saying “RAy was clearly designed with engineers in mind which makes it much easier and faster to roll out.”
ACE Telecom, a 100% Hungarian-owned company was founded in 1997 with the aim of offering alternative Internet technologies including high quality Internet services to business partners in previous blind spots. Since then, ACE has expanded its portfolio with additional Internet based solutions and has, as a result, enjoyed continuous growth. This has only been possible because of the strong trust they place in their IT infrastructure.
In their never ending search to continue offering improved reliability and levels of service, ACE Telecom became one of the first ISP’s in Hungary to start building links using RAy24 microwave units. RAy24 was chosen for its exceptional system gain and resistance to disturbances but has since showcased its excellent technical parameters, and exceptional reliability and build quality.
Despite having a link distance of 10.2 Km, one such link has been operating at full capacity of 360Mb since installation. Attila Farmosi, Managing Director of ACE is very satisfied with the data transfer capability of his new infrastructure.
It will not be long before RAy24 microwave units become an integral component of ACE Telecom’s infrastructure!
Established in 2002, ZNET Telekom is now the biggest WISP in Hungary. Their core business has traditionally been to provide connectivity to the residential market. However, they are now finding their B2B involvement expanding rapidly. The commercial sector naturally places higher demands on improved SLA’s; an issue forcing ZNET to rethink their operating strategy.
Fast becoming a common problem in many territories, saturation of the 5 GHz band has been causing issues with capacity, stability and latency. Crucially, these factors are affecting acceptable levels of service to some customers.
Having fully assessed a number of microwave units in the market against key parameters, RAy 24 GHz has been selected as the optimal solution by ZNET for migration and new links based on: low consumption, resilience, best-in-market management software, long warranty period and crucially, the same hardware for both upper and lower units. Cost performance ratios also proved to be an important factor in the final decision.
ZNET are currently installing RAy 24 GHz license free links over distances up to 5 km using 68 cm antennas and 10 km using 90 cm antennas. There have been no issues with either implementation or commissioning of these links.
Indeed, ZNET’s roadmap now includes deployment of further RAy 24 GHz links and the introduction of RAy licensed products within their networks.
ZNET acknowledge that RAy solutions have become part of ZNET’s success and are providing excellent value to their customers on a daily basis.
Smooth traffic flow is vital for any city to function efficiently and Prague is no exception; in recent years the amount of traffic using the city’s roads has increased dramatically! It became apparent some level of management system was required. Kapsch TrafficCom Construction & Realization and CAMEA were awarded a project to provide a solution by Prague Technical Maintenance Communication Centre; installed and implemented in 2015.
Partially funded by the EU, this application provides telemetry data and video from seven arterial routes in Prague; visual detection is provided on each route and data to support traffic flow monitoring and route timing calculations. The large amounts of data to be transferred to the control centre meant Microwave radios would be required, using repeaters along each route; strategically placed sensors and cameras add data flow to the overall capacity requirement at each hop.
After exhaustive appraisal, CAMEA chose to use RAy. In order to make best use of existing infrastructure and reduce disruption during implementation, the FOD design, size and low power consumption of RAy units enabled them to be mounted on existing street lights, operating from existing power supplies and batteries. In addition, the high levels of resistance to interference, a trademark quality on all RAy units, allowed the use of smaller antennas, offering further savings.
CAMEA was grateful for the levels of support received from RACOM who provided full path analyses appraisal during the early stages of link design, recommending optimal frequency of microwave based on potential radio issues on each route. They were also delighted by the ease with which links were connected and managed.
Jan Sedláček, Head of CAMEA IT Department comments: “The reliability of the RAy units was a key factor for us. A problem with any MW radio would affect data being sent from further along the communication path and it would be costly and disruptive to gain physical access to any one site. One and a half years into this project, our choice is vindicated. There have been no stability issues since day One of the project.”
RACOM is pleased to announce yet another success story for RAy2, latest microwave point-to-point link. Worldwide telecommunication company selected RAy2 as a standard network solution.
RAy2, the state-of-the-art, full outdoor radio met all the requirements to be listed as the standard license-free solution for the 10, 17 and 24 GHz links of major Telco operator in the Czech Republic. Links are deployed in cooperation with partner companies NHK Solutions and SUPTel – DISK.
To date, hundreds of links have been installed on dozens of sites within the Czech Republic; the network is continuously growing. Commissioning confirms customer’s expectations: RAy2 provides excellent reliability and is also appreciated for its remote diagnostic and monitoring system, allowing an immediate overview of network status.
The customer is one of the world’s largest telecommunication companies providing a wide range of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed broadband. It has some 450 millions mobile and fixed customers across the globe. Company business is split across two geographic regions – Europe, and Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific (AMAP)
RAy has been chosen by competitive tender as the standard solution for mobile operator O2 Czech Republic (Telefonica O2 at time of the tender).
Subsequent to O2 restructuring, the network is now owned and operated by CETIN, the largest data provider in the Czech Republic. 99.6% of the Czech population is covered by CETIN’s mix of mobile GSM, UMTS, LTE and CDMA technologies using almost 6.000 base stations, as well as fixed SDH, WDM, Ethernet and IP technologies.
With the 2014 tender valid for 3 years and for more than 700 links, it was essential to select future proofed and reliable Microwave links for 10, 17 and 24 GHz, all required for the project. After demanding testing, RAy was chosen ahead of almost all world-renowned producers who were also being considered for the contract.
The reasons for RAy being selected were summarized by Martin Králík, Director of NHK Solutions, RACOM’s partner for this project:
“The excellent RAy performance in terms of unique sensitivity and resistance to interference, extraordinary reliability and advanced diagnostics were further complemented by additional features in the new RAy including optical and metallic user interfaces, jumbo frame support, an IP-TV optimized modem and broad range of DC power options. These are all features that make for a perfect fit, to meet the extensive demands of a customer of CETIN’s caliber.”
In this application RAy is used for last mile connection to corporates and as a backhaul for forward DSLAM connections. ADSL (VDSL) connectivity is provided from DSLAM to the end users.
Resulting from complete satisfaction with RAy, the contract with RACOM and NHK Solutions was extended by CETIN in 2017 for three years and then indefinitely in 2020.
RAy links in Cetin network are nowadays used by O2, T-mobile and other Tier 1 operators in Czech republic.
La red de UPC utiliza los enlaces microondas que proporcionan los equipos RAy principalmente para servicios B2B.
Estos servicios son provistos a los clientes que demandan alta calidad y confiabilidad entre sus conexiones de red y/o las extensiones en fibra óptica
RAy es la solución óptima para este tipo de aplicaciones, en donde se requiere una capacidad nominal garantizada y alta confiabilidad del enlace.
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