Microwave Link:

A microwave link is a communications system that uses a beam of radio waves in the microwave frequency range to
transmit information between two fixed locations on the earth. They are crucial to many forms of communication and
impact a broad range of industries.
The two types of microwave transmission are terrestrial and satellite: Terrestrial microwave transmissions are sent
between two microwave stations on the earth (earth station). It is the most common form of long-
distance communication.

Classification of microwave link systems:

According to distance between the points to be connected

 Long-haul microwave links (20 to 50 km, in certain cases even more)

 Short-haul microwave links (a few hundred metres up to 20 km)

According to transmission capacity and multiplex process

 Up to around 34 Mbit/s (classical PDH)

 Up to around 1000 Mbit/s per system (Ethernet or mixed with PDH)
 Up to n times 155 Mbit/s (SDH)
 Up to 8 Gbit/s for multiband microwave systems

According to frequency band used

 6 to 8 GHz (long-haul microwave links of up to over 50 km, for the highest possible capacity)
 11 to 15 GHz (medium-haul distances of 10 to 20 km)
 18 to 38 GHz (short-haul microwave links between 1 and 10 km)
 40 to 70 GHz (shortest distances of all, up to around 1 km)
 above 70 GHz especially for multiband microwave systems

According to equipment technology

 Classical indoor equipment with waveguide between equipment and antenna

 Splitting equipment (microwave link system with the indoor and outdoor unit separated)
 Multiband microwave systems

PDH vs SDH Link:

PDH is Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy and SDH is Synchronous Digital Hierarchy. Both are used in PCM transmission
systems. Both use TDM principles for PCM frames. Earlier PDH was widely used but due to some of its weaknesses,
SDH has replaced the use of PDH. But not everywhere. Point to Point applications are still used mainly by PDH, and also,
it’s cheaper. The term plesiochronous has been derived from the Greek work ‘plesio’ that means ‘near’ and ‘chronos’
meaning time. This means that the PDH works in a state when the various different parts of a network are clearly
synchronized. But with the change in technology, the PDH is now being replaced by the SDH or what is popularly called
as synchronous digital hierarchy. The SDH is useful equipment that is used in most of the telecommunications networks.
This PDH helps in proper transmission of the data that generally runs at the similar rate but allows some slight variation in
the speed than the nominal rate. The basic transfer rate of the data is 2048 kilobits per second. For instance, in each speech
transmission, the normal rate breaks into different thirty channels of 64 kilobits per second along with two different 64
kilobits per second in order to perform the tasks of synchronization and signaling. The typical rate of transmitting the data
over the fiber optic systems is 565 Mbit/sec in order to transport the data in the long distance. But as the technology has
improved with the passing of time, now the telecommunication companies have replaced the PDH equipment with that of
the SDH equipment, which has the capability of transmitting the data at much higher rates as compared to the PDH
system. The SDH is an international standard that is highly popular and used for its high speed data transfer of the
telecommunication and digital signals. This synchronous system has been specially designed in order to provide a simple
and flexible network infrastructure. This system has brought a considerable amount of change in the telecommunication
networks that were based on the optical fibers as far as performance and cost were concerned.
The weaknesses that PDH faced paved way for the introduction and use of the SDH systems. Although the PDH proved to
be a breakthrough in the field of digital transmission, the weaknesses that made it less demanded includes:
1. Asynchronous structure that is rigid.
2. Restricted management capacity.
3. Non availability of world standard on the digital formats.
4. No optical interfaces world standard and without an optical level, networking is not possible.
But if we compare the PDH system with that of the SDH system, the latter one has a large number of advantages. Some
of the most common
advantages enjoyed by the
usage of SDH include:
1. optical interfaces

2. capability of powerful management

3. world standard digital format
4. synchronous structure is flexible
5. cost effective and easy traffic cross connection capacity and add and drop facility
6. reduced networking cost due to the transversal compatibility
7. forward and backward compatibility
Apart from all the advantages mentioned above, the SDH also has various management capabilities such as performance
management, security and access management, configuration management and the event or the alarm management. So,
we can clearly make a distinction between the PDH and SDH systems so that as per the needs of the telecommunication,
the appropriate transmission system can be used. Please note also, that PDH, if we talk as n x E1 G.703 lines to be
transmitted, can be developed only up to 16 E1 lines – 34 Mbit/s. But SDH – can reach 155 Mbit/s, which corresponds to
STM-1, can reach 622 Mbit/s – STM-4.

XPIC (Cross Polarization Interference Cancellation):

XPIC is a feature used on Carrier-Class Microwave Link installations to increase capacity and spectral efficiency of a
link.
A Microwave Link using XPIC technology capabilities effectively doubles the potential capacity of a Microwave Path.
XPIC allows the assignment of the same frequency to both the vertical & horizontal Polarization on a Path. Where
available frequencies are limited then it is possible to assign the same frequency twice on the same path using both
Polarizations. Using standard Microwave equipment from any of the major manufacturers, if a full block of eight
frequencies were available for a 6 GHz Lower band path then eight frequencies could be assigned in each direction on the
path, four per polarization. By comparison. Using equipment with XPIC capability, sixteen frequencies may be assigned
each way on the same path (eight per polarization).
Cross Polar Interference Cancellation