AIRCOM

Tip of the week: Outsourcing: If Operators are Going to do It, Here’s what they should look for

 

To reduce OPEX and CAPEX, more and more mobile operators are deploying managed services (i.e. outsourcing) for governance, KPI assurance, SLAs, WLAs, network auditing, capacity expansion and evolution into new technologies, such as 4G. However, when deploying these services, the challenge is to retain overall control of the network and ensure these services remain cost-effective.

 

Working with more than half of the world’s operators, AIRCOM has learned from experience some best practices for outsourcing:

 

• Operators must determine their EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) and innovation objectives, then plan their outsourcing KPIs/SLAs/etc. accordingly

· Operators must understand how outsourcing vendors will deliver their promised cost savings, while maintaining control and full visibility of the network.

While managed services promise 15- to 20-percent cost reductions, it can take two or more years to realize those savings.

Also, operators must keep control of their network to ensure that OPEX savings do not translate into increased CAPEX demands from their outsourcing vendors.

 

· Operators should perform an internal audit to identify areas of concern or poor performance.  In addition, they should pre-optimize their networks to facilitate better leverage in vendor negotiations.

· Operators must understand where to draw the line between what they retain in-house and what they outsource.

 

These best practices are only a sample of the considerations that operators must make when planning and managing their outsourcing. AIRCOM's Vendor Management service can help ensure operators make the right decisions for their network, whilst maximing efficiencies.

Tip of the week: How are equipment vendors approaching the “Winner Takes All” outsourcing dilemma in emerging markets

Operators in emerging markets will reduce OPEX through network sharing, from basic site sharing to RAN (radio access node) sharing, and consolidation through mergers, joint ventures and acquisitions.  Network outsourcing opportunities will grow in these markets, occurring before and/or after consolidation has occurred.

An interesting dynamic will occur with equipment vendors as they jockey for position to be “the one” chosen for these outsourcing opportunities.  These vendors will be under significant pressure to secure those opportunities because – if they do not – network sharing and consolidation may mean they “lose out” on the market all together.

The growing wave and uncontrolled timing of outsource opportunities will mean equipment vendors must have a presence and definitive “plan of attack” in those markets that fit with their overall business strategy for long-term profitability.

AIRCOM Gurus - Measurement-based optimisation – A new view in old data

One of the most difficult challenges that operators face is deciding what the right methodology is to improve their network performance. And of course the prevalent perception is that you can’t go too far wrong when relying on measurements. Which is why operators are drive testing vast areas, spending huge effort and money trying to determine what the network is doing, hopefully  from the point of view of their customers. But are drive tests, valuable as they are, the best way to provide operators with that accurate customer point of view?

Consider this; today’s mobile communications user is primarily indoors and often not even operating at the street level.  Even outdoor drive tests only represent a temporal view of conditions; drive test another day and the results will be different. With this in mind, it is clear that more is needed to help the operator determine what the customer sees, which is critical to optimise the areas where customers are rather than the streets where drive tests are taken.

In response to this dilemma, at AIRCOM we have been looking to user measurements that can plug the gap by highlighting the user’s perception of the performance. These measurements are taken as part of standard network operations and can be collected either directly through probes or aggregated and extracted from the OMC. What they are invaluable in doing is that they provide a direct representation of what users think the network performance is and critically, because it is relatively straightforward to collect large datasets, can also provide a statistically accurate view.  Using AIRCOM’s vendor independent AIQ™ platform in a recent customer case we have been able to collect as many as 449,040,000,000 measurements for the whole or 204109091 measurements per cell - a number that is several orders of magnitude larger than any drive test.

Vast as these numbers are, the real value is in what can be done using them:

• Wide area frequency planning optimisation: The most well known but also the most practical way of generating large improvements in a GSM network. Using the methodology we have been able to deliver typical relative improvements of 10%-20%  and in some cases as much as 40%. Operators often forget how valuable measurement-based wide area retuning is in quickly and reliably improving the network.
• Neighbour optimisation: Again, the volume and accuracy of relationships determined by user measurements is an extremely powerful way to determine neighbour relationships in both UMTS and GSM networks.
• Power control optimisation: Measurement reports can provide a valuable insight of the performance of the power control. AIQ can be used to visualise the power transmitted per measurements (see figure below) allowing optimisation of the PC settings. We have been able to provide up to 5% relative improvements using this methodology.

• Hardware fault identification: This covers several activities from the identification of crossed feeders, to the determination of sleeping transceivers. These activities are usually performed with drive tests but a mobile measurement capability like AIQ can result in a very efficient way to identify such problems in a fraction of the time and cost.

These are but a few of the options available when using AIQ, but the most powerful benefit is that all optimisation is focused on the users. For example, a measurement-based frequency plan will aim to reduce interference in places where users are, e.g. indoors in high buildings etc. This has the added advantage of linking more performance improvements with customer satisfaction, which as correlates directly to more revenues.  And in these challenging times, that’s something to be really thankful for!

Dimitris Dernikas, AIRCOM Product Service Solutions Director 

AIRCOM Gurus: Product spotlight - RANOPT

 

Measured for Success...

With LTE field trials and deployments ramping up and all the excitement about this new technology,  one key question  yet to be answered for most operators  is -  what does the user really experience?  In other words what difference will the guys and girls on the street notice... and will they pay to notice that difference? 

Apart from climbing the LTE mountain, back at base camp operators still have 2G/3G networks to run.  So how can operators efficiently run their existing network, reduce OPEX and get ready for a whole new era of change that’s about to happen to mobile networks?

Here at AIRCOM a lot of time has been spent in answering these important questions with tried and tested products and solutions geared for real world use. Assessing and improving user experience while decreasing OPEX is seen as one of the keys to success.  AIRCOM’s post-processing solution RANOPT offers a crucial part of the answer using drive test and trace measurement post processing.

In preparation for LTE, RANOPT V6.2 allows operators to assess the true user experience of the network and assess the quality of the current network. It offers ways to significantly improve business processes around day to day activities, with faster, efficient drill down capability, increasing engineers output and helping to ease the burden in resolving network issues.

 Some of the enhanced features include:

· Indoor measurement support and analysis including route correction for maximising returns from in-building voice and data users. Allows way point and docking points for in building, train and tunnel quality assessments. Manual and automatic route correction allowing measurement spread and extrapolation.  Femto cells (also called Home eNodeBs) will  soon become a real option to increase coverage and capacity where it’s needed most to ensure off load of traffic from already congested networks as LTE is introduced. Some in building tests are done across all technologies but assessment of indoor  coverage and throughput will become a more important facet of LTE to assess as the technology deployment ramps up.     

 

• Map tile troubleshooting for rapid fire problem resolution, increasing operational efficiencies and saving you time in reducing churn. Delivers immediate summary of problem areas with map tiling guiding users to problems and immediate call drill down enabling faster fixing of issues. The faster troubleshooting can be done with both the existing network  and new LTE deployments the better the network quality experienced by the user who potentially  doesn’t really care which technology  they get the service on.

· Trace Support (UETR and CTR) for in-depth network troubleshooting especially for Data assessment. Synchronisation with drive/walk test data enables better, faster troubleshooting especially for data calls. With a packet base system like LTE, assessment of eNodeB traces  will become crucial input  to  trouble shoot, decipher and understand  LTE system behavior

• Optimised workflow processes and display of views for reducing operational inefficiencies and saving time using scheduled Job/Tasks to increase productivity. This will allow engineers  to cope with the engineering efforts involved with deploying a new technology by automating both new processes involved with LTE and day to day processes around the existing network

And that’s not all, RANOPT is currently being used as part of AIRCOM’s global consulting services delivery to assess and deliver LTE field trials and vendor evaluation projects that are presently ongoing. For more details on services covered, please see www.aircominternational.com/LTE

RANOPT LTE R&D capability is being developed and directly used as part of a field trial being done for a major Tier 1 operator, and close liaison with a number of the world’s leading hardware vendors is allowing LTE field experience and requirements to be directly fed back into the RANOPT solution to enhance and update the capability required to deliver these projects.

This R&D capability and hands on experience gained by both consulting and software engineers  is being driven directly into the RANOPT solution which will encompass the planned future release of AIRCOM’s  LTE enabled post-processing product.

Current capability on RANOPT for use on the projects broadly covers coverage assessments around RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI and CINR/SINR, QoS profile and user experience measurement analysis. Further using simulated application layer test equipment, measurements for assessment of multi layer ftp throughput, assessment of latency and analysis of CQI and mobility features such as intra, inter LTE and IRAT handover (LTE to 3G and 2G etc) amongst a number of other analysis criteria and reports have been developed  to meet the needs of  a typical field trial for a new technology. Confirmed roadmap on capability will be published closer to completion of these field trials and release of LTE enabled product for wider market use.   

You can’t get more tried and tested than that!

 

Dharshika Fernando, Product Director, RANOPT 

Tip of the week: Getting a Jumpstart on Self Organizing Networks (SON)

Self-organizing networks (SONs) may be a few years away from widespread use. However, carriers can take steps today to prepare their networks for "SON-like" functions.

AIRCOM discusses how AIQ's algorithms are a first step towards a truly self organizing network.

When do you think we will see the first true end-to-end self organizing network? Or do you think operators will never trust their networks to fully automated solutions?

AIRCOM Shorts: Have you seen our YouTube Channel?

....http://www.youtube.com/aircomint takes you right to it. We're constantly updating this channel, but here you can see some of AIRCOM's key team members talking about their products, AIRCOM services and the telecoms industry as a whole.

Recently, we've added some stuff about the strategy behind our ENTERPRISE product suite:

 

And some stuff about the future of LTE:

An overview on our microwave planning product, CONNECT:

 

And information on how AIQ can provide a network 'health check':

 

We'll run another monthly recap as to what's new in early December. Otherwise you can go direct to our channel from here.

AIRCOM Gurus: What Happens To Transmission When RF Bandwidth Exceeds Backhaul?

 

The increasing popularity of smartphones is placing increasing pressure on operators’ data bandwidth. A myriad of phone applications and live video streaming are all causing networks to feel the strain. Technologies such as 3GPP HSPA and EVDO have led to an increasing consumer demand for bandwidth-hungry services that far exceed simple web browsing. Emerging 4G technologies such as WiMAX and EPS are pulling together to present a true mobile broadband experience. The capacity of these systems is growing, with the potential to be huge. Today’s peak rates of up to 45Mbps with HSPA+, is, in 4G, expected to reach up to 100Mbps DL. Even for multiple users in a single cell site, this equates to 5-10Mbps per user (downlink) and 1-4Mbps (uplink). Compared to the average fixed broadband rate of 8Mbps, this compares pretty well.

These high data rates can be achieved by applying a number of changes to the radio interface, such as introducing MIMO or adaptive modulation and coding along with higher modulation schemes, new multiple access techniques (OFDMA), etc. Yet the high bandwidth rates can become severely limited by network backhaul, leading to a notably degraded service, or potential signalling failures resulting in dropped packet calls. This is because the majority of current backhaul networks are deployed using TDM/ATM transmission techniques - efficient for voice services, but not optimal for bandwidth-hungry data services. This means that a redesign or significant upgrade of backhaul networks is having to be considered by operators, to cope with already perceivable backhaul bottlenecks.

The straightforward solution is to increase the number of leased lines and/or microwave links to provide more backhaul bandwidth. However, this approach is very costly and not really efficient for such a dramatic increase in capacity (typically a mobile broadband user requires 30x the backhaul bandwidth of a traditional mobile ‘voice services only’ user). Furthermore, 4G technologies are defined only for all-IP transport logic, meaning that the whole network would have to be transmitted over IP.

Instead, operators are looking to make their backhaul predominately not only packet but entirely IP based for the first time. This is a step change from the early GPRS backhaul support required for the first mobile packet networks back in 1997/8. Now, operators have to migrate to entirely packet switched technologies such as MPLS/IP in new backhaul deployments, not only to be able to support the new services advertised, but to make a step towards the necessary 4G upgrades for truly distributed Radio Access Networks (RAN).

This upgrade will most likely happen in phases. As a first step towards IP backhaul, HSPA/EVDO traffic can be offloaded over Ethernet transmission networks, while voice services can remain transmitted over traditional TDM/ATM networks. There is already a plethora of equipment available to support this hybrid technology approach as Multi-Service Platforms. Bridging technologies/techniques such as xDSL/Pseudowires (PWE3) can then be introduced to emulate circuit switched networks over underlying IP/Ethernet networks and allow the transmission of TDM/ATM over Ethernet where necessary.

Eventually, transmission networks will evolve to all optical/cable based solutions that support Ethernet/IP pure packet networks with traditional technologies only ever emulated as necessary for legacy systems.

Mobile operators have to significantly upgrade their transmission networks as they are moving towards 4G, as speeds are expected to be half an order of magnitude faster than today. However, known data latency issues being experienced today hint at the fact that this evolution is not happening fast enough to support even the current demands! AIRCOM is working to support customers in this evolution. Early next year will see the launch of our latest software, Conductor which tackles these complex issues bringing together mobile and transmission planning, enabling migration planning scenarios to be evaluated quickly for an optimal solution.

Y.G./G.F – Mobile Networks Systems Team

Product spotlight: AIQ

Anyone that has worked in the network team at an operator understands the pressure arising from the continuous aim to improve the radio performance of the network. Often operators spend significant time, resources and inevitably money to gain improvements in targeted KPIs like DCR, HOSR or CSSR. But what does it mean for the business?

Recently, AIRCOM has undertaken to optimise the network of major Asian operator and, using its AIQ solution, has been able to achieve improvements in the targeted KPIs of more than 20%.

KPIs		Improvement
Drop Call rate	(DCR)	26%
Call Set up Failure Rate	(CSFR)	27%
SDCCH Rate of Failure	(SDRF)	46%
Handover Failure rate	(HOFR)	41%
Mean Time between Drops	(MTBD)	27%

Impressive performance improvement - but what does it really mean for the operator? What’s the real value?

With the collaboration of the operator, AIRCOM converted the performance improvement into a financial value, to quantify the performance impact. In the process, we identified two components:

· Revenue increase: The KPI improvement can be approached in many different ways but the bottom line is that the intention is to allow subscribers to talk more. The more they talk, the more revenue they generate. Analysis of the traffic before and after  optimisation indicates that the area being optimised, which extended to about 150 sites, can carry an extra  4.5% of traffic or 500 Erlangs on average after the optimisation took place. Obviously different operators extract different revenue from each Erlang carried, ranging from $10-$15 in Europe to as little as $1 in India and Africa, but the relative revenue increase will be similar - about 4.5%. In the case of the Asian operator we examined, 4.5% is £850K for the region in question and more than £33M for the whole network per annum!

· Churn reduction: Studies by several authors (JD Power, Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management*) indicate that between 30-50% of customers consider performance as a key reason for churning. The importance is more emphatic in countries with less mature networks that have significant performance differences between the operators. Indeed, from most of the operators in 2G the performance of the radio accounts for a large proportion of the overall network performance. In turn, improvement of the KPIs means that a proportion of the subscribers considering churning may change their minds and remain with the operator. Our calculations indicate that the performance improvements could influence 6% of the subscriber base to remain loyal. Considering, as indicated by the Yankee group, that the cost of capturing one customer to replace one lost is between $50-$100, the impact is clear to be seen. Over the whole network, our Asian customer could gain as much as $17M. Adding on that the revenue that these subscribers will generate over the year, the additional revenue is almost $18M.

So in total, the value of the improvements across the whole network is approaching $68M for our customer in Asia.  In today’s OPEX sensitive world that’s very good news.

The next question of course is how can you get these improvements?  To find out more about AIQ, click here.

DD, AIRCOM Product Service Solutions Director 

*Research from the following:  ‘Keep the Customers Satisfied’ – Telecoms Asia, February 2009, Fiona Chau; ‘Churn Management in the Telecom Industry of Pakistan’, Sadia Jahanzeb, January 2007; J.D. Power and Associates Reports: ‘The Gap in Call Quality Performance among Carriers Narrows As Competition Intensifies across the Wireless Service Industry’, March 2009

Product spotlight: CONNECT - Saving OPEX, using adaptive modulation

 
Next generation networks are fast becoming a reality. WiMAX and LTE are on our doorstep, promising to provide us with the ultimate ‘anytime, anywhere’ broadband experience. Mobile multimedia revolution, rather than evolution, is ready to rule. But we are not there yet. Mobile operators need to protect their profitability, ensuring financially viable next generation networking.

The explosion in the usage of the mobile internet means that the volume of data travelling over the whole network will reach unprecedented levels. This is not an issue in the core part of the network, where optical fibers can transport huge amount of information, but what about the network edges? Let’s take a look…

The current infrastructure to connect the core network to the base stations (backhaul) is mainly based on E1/T1 lines and microwave links. The increase of capacity over the T1/E1 lines  translates to a tremendous increase in operators’ OPEX. Therefore, microwave links are a much more cost effective and efficient means to providing a transport network. Another efficient alternative would be transporting via optical fibers, but unfortunately,  digging up half the world to install fibers is not especially feasible, even if they do offer optimum capacity.

Backhaul transmission needs to evolve to cope with the future demands of next generation networks. One ingenious new trend that addresses this is adaptive modulation (AM) in microwave networks, where the modulation order of the radio changes according to the link characteristics. In modulation, the data message is transferred over a radio signal. In order to be more efficient, we can transfer more bits at a time, considerably increasing the total amount of data transmitted at a minimal cost. And this is the key point of success for adaptive modulation; delivering more data with less money.

AIRCOM’s CONNECT microwave backhaul and transmission planning tool understands the importance of adaptive modulation and we have introduced it as one of the tool’s core features. The available schemes that the equipment operates on are defined, as well as the required throughput that needs to be delivered. By adapting the right modulation scheme for continuously varying throughput requirements, based on the operating bandwidth for all links operating in the network, CONNECT ensures that it always fulfils users needs. The average throughput is a linear function of bandwidth and operating modulation scheme. The higher the bandwidth, the higher the spectrum costs. 

 

Just work out a cost calculator for yourself in terms of spectrum - by managing the modulation alone based on throughput requirements dynamically, you will start to realize the amount of savings on licensing costs of the spectrum. This in many cases is will be in the order of $1M when managed effectively.

 

Mobile operators need to make the most out of their investment in their existing infrastructure (TDM and not all-IP), so they will be reluctant to dismiss it all overnight. And that is not all; higher order modulation schemes (256QAM compared to 8PSK) mean that links would be unavailable more often, which it is not a major problem for internet browsing, but would prove catastrophic for voice calls.

Envisioning such needs, and looking towards tomorrow’s technology today, CONNECT provides all the necessary information to a planner, enabling them to make better use of their resources, have a better understanding of their needs and to have a more control over required spending, while maintaining the required Quality of Service. In this business, that balance of control and quality is vital.

 

JR & AS, CONNECT product team.

 

Product spotlight: AIRCOM OPTIMA

“6 months to implement this change!  How can it take so long?” - Sound familiar?

 

Do you often hear that a change you want to make in your performance management  data processing will take months to implement?  Are you told that you cannot make changes in the production environment, and that each change has to be properly controlled?  Do you hate the fact that when you come up with a good new idea on how to load or analyse performance management data in different ways,  you are told by the system administrators that you are not allowed to, or you have to follow a new IT process and your change can only be made in 6-12 months time?

 

Operators face the continuing problem of maintaining a balance between allowing performance engineers and operational staff the flexibility to load and analyse any data they want, against controlling what they do, to ensure continued system stability and consistent network availability.

 

Wouldn’t it be better if you had your own area to play in?  If you had your own space, where you cannot break anything, you could try new things, implement your ideas, and hopefully generate ideas and be recognised for proposing changes that  could save your company money?

 

A Sandbox is outside of the production environment and is an area that can allow users to do just that.

 

AIRCOM’s OPTIMA Sandbox feature has been developed to allow key users the ability to explore their data and find new ways to add value and to resolve problems.  By allowing PM system users a ‘play area’, they are given the freedom to think outside the box and create new and exciting ways to analyse data.  These new, proven solutions can then be safely published to the wider user community.

 

Allowing users the freedom to ‘play’ with their data, nurtures excitement and encourages ownership, enabling users to be creative and actively seek new ways to reduce cost and increase efficiency in the network.

 

OPTIMA Sandbox is a new feature, released in September as part of the ENTERPRISE 6.2 suite.  AIRCOM will be looking to further enhance the feature in future releases.

 

If you had the power and the technical ability, what would you make in your sandbox?

Product spotlight: AIRCOM ASSET

The amount of information relating to your network, which comes from so many different sources (including the network itself), is becoming more and more abundant.  Having that information readily available to use when making planning and optimisation decisions can make a significant difference to the accuracy and quality of your network optimisation.

Network performance metrics, network alarms, live network configuration information, tailored reports - these are just a few examples of the data that you could potentially use during network planning and optimisation activities. But it’s often all over the place, stored in multiple formats and locations. Having it readily available at your fingertips could give you a much more accurate picture of the network that you are trying to plan and/or optimise - inevitably enabling you to make better, more informed, faster decisions. 

Over the last few releases of AIRCOM’s suite of network planning and optimisation tools, we have been working to introduce the ability of integrate any information from any source.  The input and requests from our customers and partners around the world has been invaluable in shaping the functionality that we have made available in ASSET – we call it WEMD – Web Enabled Map Data.

Our customers have already successfully integrated performance measurement counter information and linked it to the site content, giving them a much richer view of the network than is typically available in our competitor’s planning and optimisation tools.   We provide this data integration ability through web services, which give the user both simplicity and flexibility.  

To make the most of this feature, all that has to be done, is to configure a web site!  The technical skills you need to have will depend on the complexity of the solution you are trying to achieve, however they would ideally include the following:

• HTML
• JavaScript/VBScript
• ASP.NET
• XML

§  IIS/Apache et al, server administration etc     

Two illustrative examples are given below in which you can see the external performance measurement counters linked to site content and feature reach online GIS integration allowing accurate aerial and street map data visualisation of site location.

 

 

 

The external content can also be integrated seamlessly into the ENTERPRISE GIS.  In order to do this, the functionality that we have introduced in our latest version of software follows OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) defined standards, and we have implemented a WFS (Web Feature Service) client. In the simplest of terms, this means that the external information can also be visualised geographically, allowing network engineers to quickly identify problem areas in the context of the whole or part of the network and subsequently enable them to take necessary action once the analysis has been performed.  

This approach affords the ability of integrating many traditionally disparate systems seamlessly.

The use of web services represents a powerful mechanism which we are looking to harness further in later software releases, as we continue to bring you new and innovative solutions.  What’s more, we are giving you, our customers, the ability to shape the way you use our tools and get the most out of them in a way that matters to you! 

Product spotlight - ENTERPRISE 6.2

ENTERPRISE 6.2 is here…but why should you care? There are many significant enhancements to the AIRCOM product suite and we’ll take a quick look at some of them here. True, being part of this effort myself I can’t help but being slightly-biased, but not too biased as to not being able to tell you what is really significant and what’s not going to change the world.

Let’s start with ASSET, the radio planning tool. You need 6.2 because of its new HSPA features: it now supports HSPA+ (the evolution of HSPA, as standardised on 3GPP release 7) and it has some usability improvements that build upon the previously existing functionality. You can now use pre-defined service and terminal settings. This will save you time. Even if you’re not planning to deploy HSPA+, or are happy with your current HSPA planning process, there’s more to ASSET 6.2 than that.

There’s also some new exciting functionality (well, to me it is anyway) in the form of what we call “Web Enabled Data”. What is that? In a nutshell, it allows you to view any web content right inside your ASSET screen, whether it’s on the site database or on the GIS “2D view”. This can be used to show your sites on Google Maps, or MS Virtual Earth or can even be used to display statistics from any PM (Performance Management) system right next to your cells on the map. But that is not all: there are also some new features to help you plan the financial metrics of your network, like ROI, and others that improve the way in which you make your 2G frequency plans.

On the OSS side, OPTIMA has improved vastly as a result of being trialled and selected by Tier 1 operators. This has resulted on a product that can easily scale to the largest network sizes, with all the Terabytes of data that comes with it! The guys at the OPTIMA team have spent countless hours testing and tweaking the software to improve the loading and querying speeds by using whatever latest and greatest technology is available from Database and Hardware vendors. The numbers are really impressive: no less than 1010 hard disks were used for testing (that’s right, one thousand and ten!) running at speeds 3 times faster than the drives you can find at your local computer shop. How big are the networks that OPTIMA can handle? Well, these tests simulated networks of more than 250,000 cells generating around 5 Terabytes (1 TB= 1000GB) of data per day. I’m sure than in 5 years time we’ll laugh at these figures, but for now they are the largest of any vendor in the PM space.

But enough of OSS numbers: what else is going on elsewhere in the ENTERPRISE suite? Well, CONNECT, the microwave link planning tool, has its share of enhancements. CONNECT now supports both TDM and Ethernet interfaces, with the Ethernet links being the latest rage in the market nowadays. Adaptive modulation and coding, another must, is also now available and last, but not least, CONNECT joins ASSET in benefitting from our Web Enabled Data interface. This means that you can display CONNECT’s microwave links on top of Google Maps, MS Virtual Earth and other web-based solutions.

I’ve run out of space here, but there are other products and features that I didn’t get to cover here. For more details you can always look here:

D.R. – Group Pre-Sales Manager