Kentrox on Thursday introduced CrossPATH 4 for cell site backhaul aggregation.
Leased lines for backhaul often are not being fully used, so CrossPATH 4 aggregates traffic to fill the backhaul circuits already in place and eliminates the need to purchase additional T1s.
CrossPATH includes DS0 cross-connect functionality, and offers IP and ATM migration options (NxT1, T3, OC3 and Ethernet). The product also includes remote management capabilities so potential T1 outages can be identified and diagnosed before they occur with built-in test and diagnostic tools. Advanced diagnostics include remote monitoring and displays for T1 signals and voltage levels of each port in real-time.
CrossPATH supports up to 16 T1 CSUs and includes an integrated QoS router in a 1 RU package, reducing the amount of cell site equipment.
“Wireless carriers want to improve cell site efficiency,” said Dan Murray, vice president of marketing at Kentrox. “CrossPATH 4 grooms 2G and 3G cell site traffic to minimize backhaul costs, while advanced remote management and diagnostics reduce truck rolls. In addition to improving efficiency of today’s radio access network, CrossPATH enables carriers to easily migrate to IP and ATM packet backhaul when the time is right.”
Cell site backhaul costs are a major portion of wireless carrier’s monthly operation expenses. Migrating to dynamic packet-based backhaul, such as IP, allows the carrier to more readily share cell site bandwidth between multiple radios and application types. The shared bandwidth and oversubscription nature of packet technology enables carriers to more efficiently converge cell site traffic and keep backhaul growth aligned with actual customer use.
The move to packet backhaul also is being spurred on by the introduction of new and more bandwidth-intensive services, including faster e-mail, Web browsing, video casts, and picture sharing. These services require higher bandwidth to the user which translates to increased bandwidth requirements to each cell site.
Packet-based backhaul services represent significant savings potential for wireless carriers. Bandwidth efficiency of using traditional IP or ATM services and lower-cost Ethernet services present additional savings opportunity both in cost of services and the efficiency of aggregating traffic before the switching center. Packet aggregation on a packet service might also represent significant cost reductions in equipment at the switching center. Instead of dedicated switching equipment ports for every cell site, packet-based switching equipment on a converged network should require less dedicated equipment.
Existing cell sites and infrastructure use T1 leased lines, however, so CrossPATH manages aggregation for these while providing migration options to future packet-based technologies.
Kentroxwww www.kentrox.com
