UltraLink™-XR80 is an ultra-high capacity, native Ethernet, dual radio operating in the E-Band (71-76 / 81-86 GHz) that is ideal for replacing optical fiber in a variety of transport applications, in particular 5G RAN xHaul (backhaul, midhaul and fronthaul). It can offer more than 30 Gbit/s full-duplex air capacity in one unit using a single 2,000 MHz channel, while the L1 Ethernet capacity of the radio may reach 40 Gbit/s full-duplex for small frame sizes. UltraLink™-XR80 employs cutting-edge RF technology, extending the capabilities of the field-proven UltraLink™-GX80 radio, to provide fiber-like wireless connectivity for bandwidth-intensive applications where alternative solutions prove impractical / economically unfeasible.
The UltraLink™-XR80 dual radio is combined with a range of integrated compact Dual polarization antennas, which include an embedded pico-OMT and can easily be mounted on tower and rooftop poles, offering the most compact and cost effective configuration for the delivery of the aforementioned capacity.
Following the concepts of Open and Disaggregated transport architecture, UltraLink™-XR80 can be integrated via its four standard 10GbE interfaces with third-party radio-aware router / switch units – as per Telecom Infra Project's (TIP) "Disaggregated White Box" specification – for the delivery of advanced Ethernet/IP/MPLS networking functionality.
Due to its versatility and capacity UltraLink™-XR80 can ideally support the combined traffic of 5G and legacy 2G / 3G / 4G mobile systems. Additional applications include transport in Metro / Aggregation networks as a fiber substitute.
UltraLink™-XR80 offers a number of highly-valued features, which are elaborated below:
UltraLink™-XR80 can offer more than 30 Gbit/s full-duplex of air capacity using a 2,000 MHz channel by seamlessly combining two radios operating in XRIC / RLA mode within a single unit. This capacity is achieved by combining an industry-high spectral efficiency 512-QAM modulation on the horizontal and vertical polarizations of a single 2,000 MHz E-Band channel. UltraLink™-XR80 supports up to 1024-QAM modulation for channel sizes from 250 MHz and 500MHz and up to 512-QAM modulation for channel sizes from 750 MHz to 2,000 MHz, allowing exceptional capacities for all channel sizes. High spectral efficiency enables the use of smaller / fewer frequency channels to deliver a particular capacity. This incurs reduced license fees in countries where such E-Band channel pricing schemes are applicable.
UltraLink™-XR80 is based on the same RF technology used for UltraLink™-GX80 benefiting from the state-of-the-art Intracom Telecom's modem technology to provide high transmit power and exceptional receiver sensitivity. UltraLink™-XR80's fast up to 9-level hitless adaptive modulation and coding can provide seamless system gain and capacity trade-off to enable highest capacity for most of the link operational time and continuous link operation under adverse propagation conditions.
UltraLink™- XR80 supports the concepts and configurations of open and disaggregated architecture, being capable of seamless integration with Telecom Infra Project's (TIP)-specification-based radio-aware router/switch, as described in "Disaggregated White Box", Technical Specification, Version 1.0, January 22, 2020 composed by TIP's Wireless Backhaul Project Group (WBH PG).
Following the disaggregation principle, the UltraLink™-XR80 unit includes the RF and modem functionality and offers a transparent Ethernet or Radio on Ethernet (RoE) / eCPRI traffic transport service over the air. It employs four 10GbE standard Ethernet interfaces (up to two of which may also operate as 25GbE interfaces) and link status-related signaling protocols to combine seamlessly with a third-party networking unit, such as a radio-aware switch/router, sometimes referred to as Cell Site Gateway (CSG), which offers the L2 or L3 networking and advanced QoS functionality.
UltraLink™-XR80 supports the following standardized methods for signaling over standard Ethernet interfaces its transport capabilities / status to external switch/router devices:
The networking unit itself may follow the software / hardware disaggregation paradigm, being composed of COTS HW and SW from different sources. As a result MNOs/CSPs can have a solution consisting of best of breed, cost optimized components to deploy in their networks.
Being an advanced packet radio, which is designed for mobile network transport applications, UltraLink™-XR80 supports a full range a frequency and phase / time synchronization methods. Its Ethernet interfaces support standards-based Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE) frequency synchronization distribution as well as the associated ESMC signaling channel. Furthermore, Precision Timing Protocol (IEEE 1588v2) Transparent Clock and Boundary Clock (T-BC) / (ITU-T 8275.1 profile) functionality is supported for the delivery of frequency and phase synchronization deemed necessary in case Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals are unavailable.
The Radio Link Quality Monitoring (RLQM) tool functionality is embedded in the UltraLink™-XR80 radio element. It monitors the propagation channel dynamics and identifies possible radio channel-related problems. It helps determine link degradation causes such as: rain, pole structural instability, radio interference, etc. It allows to remotely and quickly identify and verify the cause of a link quality problem without onsite support staff presence or additional measurement equipment, improving the network manageability and availability by expediting the detection and resolution of a link quality problem. Thus, it increases the overall network quality and services availability and reduces the network operating costs and lost service revenues.
The Radio Link Quality Monitoring tool offers the following functionality:
The spectrum analyzer and frequency band auto-scanning features can further assist in the cause analysis as well as prove very useful at the link commissioning phase for the identification of interference from other active links. This feature can be combined with the appropriate uniMS™ add-on module to enable network wide monitoring of the radio quality conditions of the installed links.
