AVIAT NETWORKS

HIGH CAPACITY + AVAILABILITY

MULTI-BAND IS THE RIGHT SOLUTION FOR 5G BACKHAUL
 WHITE PAPER

SUMMARY
MULTI-BAND, NOT MICROWAVE OR MILLIMETER-WAVE,
IS THE SOLUTION FOR 5G BACKHAUL.
Why? Microwave bands are limited in capacity, particularly in countries and
bands where spectrum is limited due to congestion. Even if you can get additional
frequencies, scaling capacity means aggregating multiple channels that results in
high equipment costs and potentially expensive recurring spectrum fees. E-Band
alone is not sufficient either. With more bandwidth available that enables higher
capacities, E-Band suffers from a number of potential limitations, from short link
distances and high susceptibility to rain outage and pole/tower sway to difficult and
time-consuming installation/antenna alignment.

Multi-Band solves all these problems. With up to 10 Gbit/s capacity,

link distances that can reach up to 10 km, easy antenna alignment
and immunity from tower movement effects, and now available in an
integrated single outdoor unit and direct-mount antenna, Multi-Band has
never been simpler or more convenient to use. So, don’t limit yourself
to just deploying capacity limited microwave links or availability and
distance-limited E-Band links. Multi-Band combines the best of each
solution.

2 AVIAT NET WORKS

5G DEMANDS MORE CAPACITY, BETTER AVAILABILITY
5G is coming and will bring tremendous challenges for network operators, in
particular, those in backhaul. Needed capacities will grow from the hundreds of
Megabits to multiple Gigabits, driven by 3D and 4k video, security and surveillance,
and big data applications. In their latest Microwave Outlook (from December 2018),
Ericsson forecasts that by 2022 the high capacity urban and suburban sites will
require between 2 and 10 Gbit/s backhaul.

THROUGHPUT LATENCY

Big Data in Augmented

seconds Reality
SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT
• Peak 10-50 Gbps (in-door, optimal) • < 1/10th of 4G
3D / UHD /
• Nx 100 Mbps urban/suburban Video • < 1 ms over the air
Work/Play in
• Min 10 Mbps everywhere • < 5 ms end-to-end
the Cloud
Self-driving
cars
Smart City
Surveillance
SERVICE
DELIVERY &
SECURITY
Fixed Wireless Industrial
MASSIVE IMPROVEMENT Access (FWA) Apps ALWAYS ON EVERYWHERE
• Viable business at ARPU Voice • 99.999% availability
of 1/100 of today • 100% coverage
• Energy efficiency
(per transported bit) x 2000
Public Safety
Sensor
Networks

LOW COST RELIABILITY

Sources: White papers - 4G Americas, GSMA, NGNM, GSA (Ericsson, Huawei, Qualcomm), Nokia, Samsung.

Figure 1: Key Drivers and Requirements for 5G Backhaul

To meet the increasing transport capacity demands,
networks will evolve to be more meshed to avoid bottlenecks,
and dynamic to achieve network-wide optimization of
resources. In addition, wireless transport networks will
continue to become more spectrally efficient to support the
increasing demand.
However, as 5G industrial and public safety use cases
emerge, transport networks cannot sacrifice availability to
achieve capacity, latency, and cost objectives. Link, node, and
network-level reliability will need to improve in an automated
and cost reduced network for 99.999% or better mission-
critical level reliability, and close to 100% coverage.

AVIAT NET WORKS 3

 WHITE PAPER
WIRELESS BACKHAUL REMAINS KEY
FOR 5G SUCCESS
Wireless will continue to be a critical element for operators
around the globe. Ubiquitous and cost-effective availability
of fiber has been expected since the days when 3G was
at the same point as we are today with 5G. But the reality
is that fiber isn’t (and probably never will be) everywhere
cost-effectively. Far from being an ‘old’ technology, wireless
(i.e: 5 to 42 GHz microwave, and 80 GHz millimeter-wave) is
expected to provide backhaul for 65 percent of the world’s
base stations by 2023 according to Ericsson (excluding China,
Korea, Japan, and Taiwan).
One critical issue for wireless backhaul for 5G will be
spectrum availability. Most microwave bands in common use
around the world are congested, often severely, and 5G will
require very large bandwidths to support backhaul capacities
up to and above 1 Gbps, using existing technologies. On top
of this, frequency bands such as 24, 26, 28, 39 and 42 GHz,
and 57 to 71 GHz V-Band, are likely to be assigned to 5G
access in various parts of the world, removing them from
consideration for backhaul. This shortage and congestion
will drive a significant change in backhaul networks towards
higher frequency bands, where much more spectrum is
freely available.
E-BAND SUPPORTS 5G CAPACITY
NEEDS
One such band is the 70 to 90 GHz band, also known as
E-Band, where latest developments in technology and
higher volume production techniques have resulted in link
costs falling dramatically. E-Band is now considered the key
band for 5G backhaul to take the place of traditional bands,
enabling high bandwidth links up to several kilometers,
with a high degree of frequency re-use that will support the
increased site density required for 5G networks.
The interest in E-Band from operators is now widespread in
all regions, with many new and mature products available
on the market that can support up to 10 Gbps in a single
radio channel, to the point that E-Band is expected to see
a significant growth curve in 2019 and beyond. Skylight
Research, in their latest 5-Year forecast, predicts that the
market for E-Band will grow from $296 million in 2018 to over
$1.25 billion in 2023, a CAGR of 34%. In contrast, Skylight
4 AVIAT NET WORKS
expects the microwave market (6 to 42 GHz) to remain more
or less flat over the same period.
BUT IS E-BAND REALLY SUITABLE FOR 5G
BACKHAUL?
E-Band wireless solutions have been around for several
years, but certain aspects may have slowed the take-up in
demand, such as high equipment prices, Regulator imposed
limitations or non-availability of E-Band spectrum in certain
countries. But there are other factors that may have made
operators think twice about large-scale deployments of this
technology, which become more acute when considering it
for massive-scale 5G backhaul applications:
• Limited reach – maximum link distances with acceptable
availability (99.99% or better) are only up to 2 or 3 km (1
km or less in high rain rate regions like Asia). This limits
the number of applications and rules out using E-Band as
a high capacity replacement for all but the very shortest
microwave links. This issue leads many to seek out high
system gain E-Band solutions, but unlike traditional
microwave bands, additional transmitter power at 80
GHz buys only a small incremental improvement in link
availability.
• Risk of outage – high precipitation can take down a link for
an extended period. Unlike microwave fading mechanisms,
which can be very short but distributed throughout the year,
E-Band fading and resulting outages are all rain-induced,
and can be long in duration, leading to noticeable service
disruptions.
• Difficult to align antennas – E-Band antenna beam-widths
are very narrow (0.5 degrees vs. 2 degrees for a microwave
2ft antenna). This makes getting the precise alignment
very difficult and time-consuming, raising installation
complexity and costs.
• Susceptible to pole or tower sway - due to narrow antenna
beam-width any appreciable movement in the antenna
mount structure can cause the antennas to move out of
alignment leading to signal loss and outages.
For high capacity links supporting mission-critical
applications, poor availability can’t be accepted. For this
reason, E-Band alone is not a sufficient solution for 5G
Backhaul requirements.
MULTI-BAND COMBINES HIGH CAPACITY AND AVAILABILITY
Multi-Band (also known variously as Dual-Band, or Band Carrier Aggregation, BCA,
etc.) is a relatively new approach that combines an E-Band link with a parallel link
operating in a traditional microwave band, such as 15, 18 or 23 GHz.

Multi-Band is gaining attention as an alternative for microwave links that are con-
strained by narrow channel bandwidths and lack of spectrum to support multi-
Gigabit links of longer distances than E-Band alone can support, up to as much as 8
to 10km.

MULTI-BAND VS. E-BAND PERFORMANCE AND UPTIME

In the example below, the E-Band link supports a maximum throughput of 9.9 Gbit/s for 98.5% of the time (equal to more than
114 hours of outage per year), and under rain fade conditions the modulation can reduce to QPSK with a throughput of 2.7
Gbit/s, but beyond that the link will be out of service (unavailable) for a little over 7 hours per year.

MICROWAVE* MULTI-BAND*
Capacity Outage Time Capacity Outage Time
MOD Mbps HH:MM:SS MOD Mbps DAY HH:MM:SS
QPSK : 75 00:00:19 QPSK : 75 00:00:19 Multi-Band
16QAM : 150
32QAM : 200
00:00:46
00:01:14
16QAM :
32QAM :
150
200
00:00:47
00:01:16
7hrs
More uptime
64QAM : 249 00:01:33 64QAM : 249 00:01:35
128QAM : 319 00:02:46 128QAM : 319 00:02:51
256QAM : 369 00:04:33 256QAM : 369 00:04:41
512QAM : 415 00:07:47 512QAM : 415 00:08:01
1024QAM : 458 00:13:03 1024QAM : 458 00:13:30 E-BAND*
2048QAM : 500 00:30:08 2048QAM : 500 00:31:39
Capacity Outage Time
4096QAM : 531 01:40:09 4096QAM : 531 01:49:01 MOD Mbps DAY HH:MM:SS
QPSK / 4096QAM : 3231 07:13:03 QPSK : 2700 07:45:28
*Microwave @ 15GHz, 56MHz channel 16QAM / 4096QAM : 5931 14;49:40 16QAM : 5400 14:29:10
32QAM / 4096QAM : 7331 001 02:26:51 32QAM : 6800 001 01:30:36
64QAM / 4096QAM : 8731 002 04:51:48 64QAM : 8200 002 02:40:43
128QAM / 4096QAM : 10000 005 02:16:11 128QAM : 9900 004 18:31:01

Multi-Band *E-Band @ 80GHz, 2000Mhz channel

*Multi-Band @ 80GHz, 2000Mhz channel
15GHz, 56MHz channel

Multi-Band
>400 Mbit/s capacity at

99.999%
Capacity more capacity
at EACH STEP

availability
Figure 2. Comparing E-Band and Multi-Band link performance for 7.45 km path with 0.6m antennas

AVIAT NET WORKS 5

 WHITE PAPER

The Multi-Band link has a similar availability at the high end,
since this is dictated largely by the E-Band portion, but once
the E-Band channel drops out of service due to rain fade you
the additional protection of the microwave channel available
to maintain the high priority traffic, which is automatically
and hitlessly load balanced/switched between each link
using Layer 1 Link Aggregation. The overall throughput on
the Multi-Band link is also higher by about 10% at each step,
thanks to the additional capacity supported on the microwave
channel.

In Figure 3, up to 531 Mbit/s of high priority traffic can be maintained on the microwave channel, and at least 415 Mbit/s with
99.999% availability (the minimum for critical traffic), all of which would be lost on the E-Band only link. ACM on the microwave
link reduces capacity and maintains the link operation for all but just 19 seconds annually. Overall, the Multi-Band links would
remain in service for more than 7 hours more than the E-Band link throughout the course of the year – a significant difference.
Using wider microwave channels (112 MHz), and by combining two channels, it is possible to boost the bandwidth available to
higher priority traffic on the microwave link up to as much as 2.5 Gbit/s.

Figure 3. Comparing E-Band and Multi-Band link capacity and outage, per modulation step

MULTI-BAND ARCHITECTURE EVOLUTION

The first Multi-Band solutions comprised of simply an E-Band outdoor radio being connected to a standard split-mount
microwave terminal via Ethernet, using separate E-Band and Microwave antennas at each end of the link.
More recently, second generation Multi-Band systems support an all-outdoor architecture that eliminates the need for an
indoor unit, employing efficient Layer 1 Link Aggregation, and taking advantage of new Dual-Band antennas that combine the
mount and feed for the E-Band and microwave radio onto a single reflector. Overall a more elegant and cost-effective solution,
but you still need to design, purchase, deploy, configure and manage two individual radio links per site, radios that may not be in
the same product family, so will have different practices for deployment, operations and management – costly and not optimal.

6 AVIAT NET WORKS

SINGLE-BOX MULTI-BAND
With the mass deployment of 5G networks in the coming years, something much simpler is needed. Aviat has recently
introduced their WTM 4800 Multi-Band solution, which integrates both the E-Band and Microwave radios, along with the switch
and aggregation engine, all in one compact and easy to deploy box.

Figure 4. Single-Box Multi-Band – fewer boxes means reduced complexity and lower costs

Multi-Band in one box brings all the convenience of all-

outdoor radios, including:
• One compact radio unit to install and configure
• Direct ‘slip-fit’ antenna mount
• Single aggregated 10 GE interface
• Single Network Element, one management IP address
• Single GUI/CLI configuration interface

EASY ANTENNA ALIGNMENT AND IMMUNITY TO TOWER MOVEMENT

Since Multi-Band antenna includes not only a narrow beam width E-Band feed, but also a wide-beam width microwave feed,
antenna alignment is greatly simplified and accelerated. Instead of relying on optical alignment tools, coarse antenna alignment
can be easily achieved using the microwave channel received signal strength indicator (RSSI). Fine alignment can be completed
by switching to the E-Band RSSI. Installation engineers can then be assured that the link is properly aligned on the main
antenna centerline, avoiding any potential problems or degraded performance due to misalignment.
The wider microwave antenna beam width also ensures that the link is maintained, even in the event of pole or tower movement
or sway that would have caused degraded performance or even an outage on an E-Band link.

AVIAT NET WORKS 7

 WHITE PAPER

DEPLOY MULTI-BAND FOR HIGH INTEGRATED MULTI-BAND PLANNING

CAPACITY AND HIGH AVAILABILITY
Multi-Band solves the conundrum of high capacity backhaul
for 5G. Microwave bands are bandwidth limited and
congested, meaning achieving anything close to 1 Gbit/s or
more is extremely difficult, particularly in urban/suburban
areas. E-Band delivers the capacity needed, with ample
spectrum and high frequency re-use, but link distances are
kept short due to rain, particularly if high availability (99.99%
or better) is needed.
In contrast, Multi-Band provides ultra-high capacity,
combined with high availability for the most important traffic.
So instead of deciding between capacity or availability,
choose both with Multi-Band. Better yet, since the E-Band
channel in Multi-Band is generally license free or lightly
licensed, as well as being able to tune to any channel in
the E-Band spectrum, you can deploy Multi-Band with just
the microwave channel enabled, then turn on the E-Band
channel only when needed (by software), and smoothly
increase the capacity from 1, 3, 5 and up to 10 Gbit/s as and
when needed. All the while, your highest priority traffic is
maintained on the microwave channel.
AND DESIGN
Microwave engineers typically use tools like Pathloss to
design microwave links and ensure that they will meet the
capacity and availability objectives. However, few tools are
available that combine the calculations for the microwave
and E-Band channels into a combined, integrated view of
availability and capacity for the complete Multi-Band link.
Instead, calculations must treat each as a separate link and
then the results need to be manually combined.
Aviat Design, Aviat’s cloud-based path design tool, has been
updated to support E-Band and Multi-Band calculations. You
can now design your Multi-Band links in a single screen with
a single set of integrated results.
You can start designing your
Multi-Band WTM 4800 links now for
free, at www.aviatcloud.com.

Received Signal Capacity Availability Frequency Outage Time

Modulation
(dBM) (Mbps) (%) Band (Days HH:mm:ss)

QPSK -28.4 dBm 151 99.99973 15 GHz 000 00:01:24

16QAM -30.4 dBm 301 99.99948 15 GHz 000 00:02:45

32QAM -30.4 dBm 400 99.99923 15 GHz 000 00:04:03

64QAM -30.4 dBm 499 99.99908 15 GHz 000 00:04:51

128QAM -30.9 dBm 639 99.99855 15 GHz 000 00:07:38

256QAM -31.4 dBm 738 99.99784 15 GHz 000 00:11:23

512QAM -31.9 dBm 830 99.99665 15 GHz 000 00:17:36

1024QAM -32.9 dBm 916 99.99642 15 GHz 000 00:18:49

2048QAM -33.9 dBm 1001 99.99071 15 GHz 000 00:48:49

4096QAM -34.9 dBm 1062 99.98041 15 GHz 000 01:42:59

-24.6 dBm /
QPSK/4096QAM 3762.0 99.9347389487 80 GHz / 15 GHz 000 04:00:04
-34.9 dBm
-26.6 dBm /
16QAM/4096QAM 6462.0 99.9047048335 80 GHz / 15 GHz 000 06:37:59
-34.9 dBm
-28.1 dBm /
32QAM/4096QAM 7862.0 99.87262112 80 GHz / 15 GHz 000 09:26:39
-34.9 dBm
-30.1 dBm /
64QAM/4096QAM 9262.0 99.8246005291 80 GHz / 15 GHz 000 13:39:05
-34.9 dBm
Figure 5. Aviat Design tool integrated Multi-Band results

8 AVIAT NET WORKS

INTEGRATED SINGLE-BOX MULTI-BAND IS THE
RIGHT ANSWER FOR 5G BACKHAUL
Deploying microwave may meet availability and reliability objectives, but capacity does not easily scale up to or above 1
Gbit/s. E-Band provides the capacity, but not high availability, particularly over anything but the very short paths, limiting its
usefulness.
So why limit yourself, when you can easily combine the best of both worlds in a single-box Multi-Band solution and be able to
support radio paths up to 4x longer than E-Band while protecting high priority, mission-critical traffic with four or five-nines
availability.

Aviat’s new WTM 4800 Multi-Band radio provides reliable, high capacity connec-
tions up to 10 Gbit/s, over link distances up to 10 km, in a single and easy to deploy
all-outdoor unit. Combined with the only available cloud-based Multi-Band design
tool and convenient online ordering and rapid delivery, the perfect backhaul solu-
tion for mission-critical 5G networks is here and available now.

ABOUT AVIAT WTM 4800

WTM 4800 Multi-Band is the industry’s simplest Multi-Band
solution which significantly lowers total cost of ownership
(TCO) compared to alternative Multi-Band solutions that rely
on two, three and even four separate boxes.
WTM 4800 is available in three (3) product variants:
• 10Gbps E-Band: single channel 80GHz radio
• 20Gbps E-Band: dual channel 80GHz radio (with optional
XPIC)
• 10Gbps Multi-Band: single integrated Multi-Band radio
includes single channel 80GHz plus a single or dual- KEY FEATURES:
channel microwave (6-42GHz) support in one self-contained
• Operating frequencies from 71-76, 81-86 GHz (E-Band), plus
and integrated outdoor unit.
optional 15, 18, 23 GHz (Multi-Band). Additional microwave
Since it is built on the WTM 4000 platform, WTM 4800 shares frequencies for Multi-Band can be considered upon
all the same features and capabilities, including advanced request;
50 Gbit/s Carrier Ethernet switch, four user traffic ports,
• QPSK to 256QAM Modulation (E-Band);
including 2x 10 GE/SFP+, 1 GE, and 1 GE/PoE, plus direct
• Channel sizes from 250 to 2000 MHz (E-Band);
48 VDC DC option, AES Encryption, Multi-Layer Header
Compression, IEEE 1588v2 TC/BC, embedded SDN (Netconf/ • QPSK to 4096QAM Modulation (Microwave, Multi-Band);
Yang) capability, and fully upgradeable by software to support • Channel sizes from 7 to 112 MHz (Microwave, Multi-Band);
IP/MPLS. • Dual microwave channel (Multi-Band) operation using Aviat
A2C;
• FDD operation;
• Zero-footprint, all-outdoor design;
For more information visit • 4x user traffic ports, with electrical/PoE and optical
www.aviatnetworks.com, or connect interface options, including 1/2.5/10 GE;
with Aviat on Twitter, Facebook, and • Supported by Aviat Design tool for E-Band and Multi-Band
link planning.
LinkedIn.

AVIAT NET WORKS 9

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© Aviat Networks, Inc. 2019. All Rights Reserved. Data subject to change without notice.
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