Case Study

Designing Long-Distance, Over-Water Links

Ceragon delivers high capacity microwave links uncompromised by
reflective water surfaces or extra-long distances

Overview
For many years, designing links over reflective surfaces has been a challenging task for
microwave transmission path engineers. As water is a good reflector, the reflected wave
can have different phase and amplitude as compared to a line-of-sight wave. This results
in multipath fading, and ultimately leads to a high level of errors and signal interruptions.
In addition, layers in the atmosphere with varying temperatures and humidities may
cause “ducting”, a well-known problem in long radio paths. To address this problem and
ensure reliable communication links, engineers need to perform special performance
calculations, as well as have extensive experience in designing over-water microwave
links.

Water reflections, line-of-sight and harsh weather conditions

Water reflections, line-of-sight considerations and corrosive environments are factors to
consider when designing over-water microwave links. Space diversity and high system
gain to minimize the effect of multipath fading, antenna height vs. earth curvature
calculations, use of ruggedized radio - all of these need to be taken into account to ensure
the highest possible link availability.

The solution
Throughout the years, Ceragon has proved itself to be a reliable partner for customers
building their networks across the islands or requiring highly reliable links for critical
offshore environments. With radios built to withstand the harsh conditions of the
North Sea, and highly qualified engineering teams with the expertise to overcome the
challenges of still, tropical water surfaces, Ceragon has gained the reputation of a highly
trusted transmission solution provider.

This paper focuses on four cases of over-water network deployments:

• Maldives: Dhiraagu, Gadhdhoo - Fuva Mulaku, 66 km from 120m towers at sea level
• Venezuela: Telefonica Venezuela, Apretadero – Los Roques, 172 km
• Equatorial Guinea: RTV EG, Pico Basilé - Monte Douba, 241 km
The world’s longest over-water, all-IP link
• The North Sea: Talisman Energy, Yme - Bjerkreim, 123 km
The world’s longest microwave radio hop to an offshore rig
Dhiraagu, Maldives
Gadhdhoo - Fuva Mulaku, 66 km from 120m towers at sea level
Best capacity compared to competition

Customer: Dhiraagu, 35 hops

Longest sea hop: Gadhdhoo - Fuva Mulaku, 66 km from 120m towers at sea level
Configurations and equipment: 7 GHz, LH 4+1, 6+1; Combiner Space Diversity;
Evolution Long Haul SDH
Application: Mobile

Ceragon delivered a turn-key solution, providing highly reliable long distance links to
cover the entire territory of the Maldives, including its most distant atolls. The project
involved sophisticated path calculations to consider the flat reflective water surfaces as
well as the earth curvature factor. As the towers had to be erected right from the sea level,
they had to be as high as 120 meters to provide for the reliable transmission from one
atoll to another. Specially designed raft foundations allowed building towers directly on
the water-logged atoll ground.

Venezuela
High-capacity over-water link, 172 km

Customer: Telefonica Venezuela - Movistar, 6 hops over water

Longest sea hop: Apretadero – Los Roques, 172 km (40Mbps)
Configurations and equipment: 1+1 Ethernet, 1+1/3+1/7+1 STM-1 Co-channel, Combiner
Space Diversity; Evolution Long Haul
Application: Mobile

Ceragon delivered a turn-key solution, employing its long term expertise and field-
proven radio to build high capacity communication links over long distances, over large
amounts of warm Central American waters. Special care was taken to neutralize the
thermodynamically unstable atmosphere and the resulting temperature inversion. Water
reflections and signal fading were optimally countered with accurate antenna spacing.
Equatorial Guinea
Pico Basilé - Monte Douba, 241 km
The world’s longest over-water, all-IP link

Customer: RTV EGm, 41 links

Longest sea hop: Pico Basilé - Monte Douba, 241 km
Configurations and equipment: 7 GHz, LH 4+1, 6+1; Combiner Space Diversity;
Evolution Series Long Haul SDH, NetMaster NMS
Application: Broadcast

RTV EG is the national broadcasting operator of Equatorial Guinea. Committed to

providing the citizens of Equatorial Guinea with high-quality broadcast services and full
national coverage, RTV EG set out to build a reliable transmission network. While neither
Evolution radio
fiber nor satellite solutions could satisfy the operator’s CAPEX and OPEX requirements,
4-40 GHz
microwave technology proved to be a truly cost-effective option. To connect two parts of
10 Mb/s – 1.6 Gb/s
the country, Malabo, the capital, and the continental area, the operator had to overcome
Ethernet & TDM
the water path of 241 km. This meant that a high capacity over-water link had to be built
across the sea.

Ceragon delivered a turn-key solution, providing field survey, frequency planning,

installation and commissioning services. The project covered the entire territory of
Equatorial Guinea, providing high capacity broadcast backbone for the whole country
and connecting the capital, Malabo, to the continental area via a 241 km link.

This link is today’s longest all-IP microwave over-water link. Starting from Pico Basilé, the
highest summit on the island of Bioko with an altitude of 9,878 ft (3,011 m), it traverses
241 km of ocean surface to reach the destination tower in Monte Douba. Apart from
using high performance radio, it was essential to provide high link margin to overcome
the multipath fading effect and ensure the best possible quality of the broadcasting
service.
 The North Sea
Yme - Bjerkreim, 123 Km
The world’s longest microwave radio hop to an offshore rig

Customer: Talisman Energy Inc.

Longest sea hop: Yme - Bjerkreim, 123 km
Configurations and equipment: Evolution IP Long Haul radio, split-mount, 4 carrier
system: 4 x 32Mb/s totaling 128Mb/s; ATEX EExP Zone 1 PointLink equipment (2.0m);
Quadruple Space Diversity Split in two branching units (custom design)
Application: Offshore

Talisman Energy Inc. is one of Canada’s largest petroleum companies with presence
all over the globe, having its main operating areas in North America, Scandinavia and PointLink MKII 2.9m/9.5 ft Dome
Southeast Asia. In 2009, Talisman started the re-development project of the previously
abandoned Yme oil field, located 100 km off the coast of Norway. Apart from re-
developing the wells and oil storage tanks, Talisman had to build a high capacity
communication link to connect the rig to the mainland across the waters of the North
Sea.

Using its advanced PointLink system and Evolution radio, Ceragon delivered a high
capacity radio link not affected by fading, harsh weather conditions or rig movements.
The microwave link deployed by Ceragon is the main link, while satellite connection is
used as a low capacity backup link. Today, the link to Yme site is the world’s longest over-
water link to an offshore installation, providing the capacity of up to 128Mb/s.
PointLink MK 2.0m/6.6ft
Dual Axis
Ceragon provided a turnkey solution, providing field survey, performance calculations,
frequency planning, installation and commissioning services to deliver a reliable high Microwave radio link system
capacity over-water link. Having to comply with very stringent requirements dictated by for offshore communication
a hazardous offshore environment, Ceragon successfully delivered a solution connecting
the Bjerkreim station on the mainland with the offshore rig at Yme.

About Ceragon
Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ: CRNT) is the #1 wireless backhaul specialist. We provide innovative, flexible
and cost-effective wireless backhaul solutions that enable mobile operators and other wired/wireless service
providers to deliver 2G/3G, 4G/LTE and other broadband services to their subscribers. Ceragon’s high-capacity,
solutions use microwave technology to transfer voice and data traffic while maximizing bandwidth efficiency,
to deliver more capacity over longer distances under any deployment scenario. Based on our extensive global
experience, Ceragon delivers turnkey solutions that support service provider profitability at every stage of the
network lifecycle enabling faster time to revenue, cost-effective operation and simple migration to all-IP networks.
As the demand for data pushes the need for ever-increasing capacity, Ceragon is committed to serve the market
with unmatched technology and innovation, ensuring effective solutions for the evolving needs of the marketplace.
Our solutions are deployed by more than 430 service providers in over 130 countries.
Visit Ceragon at www.ceragon.com.
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