This was a draft from a now-retired blog of mine called Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) Backhaul on 2008-04-17.
These are bullet points only from my original notes. My memory is a bit fuzzy on this after 13 years. Some of this may well be incorrect as I never published this article and thus never got a chance to have it vetted for accuracy.
Exalt Communications went through a bankruptcy and emerged as Exalt Wireless, but at some point (subsequent to 2018?) quietly went out of business. Their website now redirects to https://www.starmicrowave.com who apparently can do some repairs to Exalt units.
- Exalt's goal is to be a one stop shop for backhaul.
- They're agnostic on all aspects backhaul:
- Bands:
- 2 GHz and up
- 2.4 GHz
- 5 GHz
- 6 GHz
- 11 GHz
- 23 GHz
- 40 GHz
- others to follow.
- Notably missing - 60 GHz.
- Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) vs TCP/IP.
- Indoor / Outdoor vs all-Outdoor.
- Licensed vs License-exempt.
- Topology is currently Point to Point (PTP) only, but working on Point to Multipoint (PMP)
- Bands:
- With Exalt, you can start with license-exempt and migrate to licensed
- People bought more and more license-exempt WHEN THEY WORKED.
- TCP/IP and TDM treated natively inside the radio, controlled by software. The two interfaces built in, no external boxes needed. There's no penalty on latency using TDM, not emulating TDM over TCP/IP (as other vendors do).
- Can use TDM and TCP/IP simultaneously.
- Total of 19 distinct products.
- Model EX-5-16DS3 has 16 T-1 ports, T-3 ports, Ethernet, committed capacity on T-1, T-3, any/all excess capacity to
- EX-S (split mount) has TDM and Ethernet in an indoor box, connects to different band converters on the tower, uses a single coax for radio and power.
- 40 GHz in part 101 bands, 23 GHz, 18 GHz, and 11 GHz are the most popular bands in the US.
- 4.9 GHz available in all indoor (EX-I) or outdoor (EX-R). Includes TDM and TCP/IP. It's the highest capacity unit for 4.9 GHz.
- All radios include automatic power control, 1/2 dB steps for maximum spectrum utilization, built-in spectrum analyzer to park signal at least-congested portion of band.
- Topology - currently users are used to (comfortable) with star, individual point-to-point, or ring.
- "Fast burst" technology built in for eventually being able to offer PMP.
- The people buying their units "aren't quite there" yet (for PMP?)
- Exalt's focus is high capacity, low latency - ideal for migrating to mesh.
- Exalt has grown corporate team, more than 270 customers, lots of domestic and international carriers, enterprise, industrial, government.
- Exalt's analysis is that backhaul needed is 100x what they're used to (for T-1)
- Exalt is in a great position - fiber is needed, but not practical except in special circumstances. Exalt is agnostic about LTE vs Mobile WiMAX.
- Exalt has sync capability for multiple radios in one location. Can either sync with a cable, or via GPS.
Thanks for reading!
Steve Stroh
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2020-03-16
Help Om Malik Be Clueful About BWIA
Although Om Malik and GigaOm Writer Stacey Higginbotham aren't what I would call "deep" on the topic of BWIA, they try pretty hard, write it up in an interesting way, and from everything I can tell, they're completely editorially independent.
I respect them enough that I sent a brief "Hail Mary" message (for non-US readers, it's a term from the game of football) stating that I was discontinuing my independent writing on BWIA and asking if they would be interested in having me write for them. I didn't get a response, but I didn't really expect to.
So, when Malik wrote today:
Note: I am starting to keep close tabs on all mobile web/wireless broadband developments and will be keeping you posted in coming weeks and months. I am looking to come up with a matrix of winners and losers - from chipmakers to device makers to carriers — from all these new wireless evolutions. If you want to help me with that, drop me a note with your thoughts and suggestions. Or send me your email address so I can add you to an ever-changing collaboration using Google Docs.
I think it's significant that Malik is starting to devote significant attention to BWIA, so I encourage the "connected" readers of this blog to help keep him up-to-date on significant BWIA developments. I think that Malik and Higginbotham's biggest handicap in writing about BWIA is lack of overall context about what is, and what isn't, significant about ongoing BWIA developments. From my perspective, BWIA's been a continuous development for a decade now, but they, like most writers and analysts seem to date their interest back only to Intel's big splash in 802.16/WiMAX a few years ago.
I guess their contact form is the way to try to initiate contact with Om.
By Steve Stroh
This article is Copyright © 2008 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).
This article was written and posted via Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA); Clearwire service using a NextNet Wireless / Motorola Expedience Residential Service Unit (RSU).
Posted by Steve Stroh on April 10, 2008 at 12:39 in BWIA Industry Commentary | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)