RAD Launches All-in-One LTE-Ready
Cell Site Gateway that Backhauls Multi-Generational Mobile Traffic over Any Transport Network

16th February 2009 - At the 2009 Mobile World Congress, which is being held 16th-19th February in Barcelona, RAD Data Communications is exhibiting the industry's most advanced multi-generation cell site gateway, which enables a smooth migration to next generation networking by backhauling 2G, 3G and 4G mobile traffic over all-IP fibre infrastructure, DSL and SDH/ATM backbones.

The best-of-breed ACE-3220 cell site gateway is specifically designed to accommodate the rapid expansion in cellular backhaul traffic resulting from the widespread deployment of new mobile broadband services. The

ACE-3220 minimises operating expenses (OpEx) and capital expenses (CapEx) by simultaneously delivering GSM, UMTS and next generation 3GPP/LTE traffic over packet-based transport networks. This is achieved through pseudowire technology and enhanced clock recovery mechanisms such as 1588-2008 and synchronous Ethernet. The device's advanced Quality of Service (QoS) features simplify service provisioning and control to shorten rollout time. The ACE-3220 also features an option to enhance throughput in 2G networks using GSM Abis interface optimisation.

"The ACE-3220 incorporates all four of the critical elements that are necessary to provide the versatility required to replace SDH with fibre as the backhaul transport media," explains Ronen Guri, Director of Product Management and Business Development for Mobile Backhaul Solutions at RAD Data Communications. "These are accurate clock synchronisation, pseudowire as an enabling technology, advanced Ethernet OAM capabilities, and resiliency," he notes.

Until now, most mobile operators have been upgrading their backhaul networks to meet the demands of HSPA, and eventually LTE, by deploying one network for data and a separate one for time-sensitive legacy traffic such as voice.

"Mobile operators and backhaul transport providers will want to examine the ACE-3220 for their mobile backhaul networks, since it is designed to solve the basic problems of moving forward now to a packet backhaul – it can be used to deploy an end-to-end pseudowire solution to simultaneously backhaul 2G and 3G traffic over fibre," states Michael Howard, Principal Analyst and co-founder of Infonetics Research. "This is a means to the providers' real target architecture of a single packet backhaul network, as opposed to the two network 'hybrid' or 'dual backhaul' approach currently being used for HSPA offload."