Smallest-footprint Horizon Quantum delivers 4 Gbps per link and key nodal intelligence, slashing carriers’ cost per bit

“Clearwire’s position as a global leader in deploying 4G service places us at the forefront of backhaul network development where we are today building one of the world’s largest, most dynamic and cost-effective microwave backhaul solutions,” said Dr. John Saw chief technology officer of Clearwire “To meet the growing demand for high-speed mobile connectivity, we need increasingly powerful, intelligent and cost-efficient solutions to capitalize on demand for bandwidth intensive and runtime sensitive applications. Horizon Quantum will help us achieve even higher capacity in our backhaul network to serve the increasingly high-bandwidth demands of our customers.”

A native Ethernet implementation delivering record capacity and supporting sub-0.1-millisecond latencies, the new DragonWave solution is optimized for the rollout of 4G services. The Horizon Quantum’s Bandwidth Accelerator allows it to achieve superior spectral efficiency and redefine the capacity standard for packet microwave.

In addition, the half-rack-unit device incorporates key nodal intelligence features that yield significant cost efficiencies. Thanks to its integrated switching capability, for example, Horizon Quantum can perform aggregation and serve as a switch for ring and mesh network architectures. This enables carriers to reduce the equipment deployed, powered and maintained in their networks. Plus, the DragonWave solution’s flexible, user-scalable bandwidth, enables simple and remote scaling without truck rolls, affording carriers key operational cost benefits.

“The gap between bandwidth demand and revenues continues to widen for many carriers in their march toward 4G services, so they are eager to adopt innovations that transform network operations,” said Berge Ayvazian, senior advisor with Yankee Group. “Service providers need to be able to deliver more low-latency bandwidth—up to 100 Mbps per site—at a lower cost per bit than has been possible. Horizon Quantum promises to make carrier-grade, high bandwidth native Ethernet transport with the scale required to meet the needs of 4G mobile Internet backhaul.
“Our involvement with customers like Clearwire has allowed us to understand first hand the needs of leading 4G service providers,” said Peter Allen, president and CEO, DragonWave. “Horizon Quantum has benefitted fully from this and is an exciting step forward at this early pivotal period in the launch of 4G Mobile Broadband networks as it increases capacity, reduces cost per bit economics and extends packet microwave features and functions.”

The Horizon Quantum—scheduled to ship by the end of 2009—delivers interference-free performance in both licensed and unlicensed radio frequencies in the 6 to 38 GHz range. The carrier-grade DragonWave solution enables 99.999 percent service reliability, delivers advanced security and encryption and fully supports SynchE and other critical Ethernet data transport capabilities such as virtual local area network (VLAN) queuing/prioritization, flow control and jumbo packets. Its pseudowire capability enables Ethernet and Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) traffic to be collapsed on a single, packet-based network. The Horizon Quantum is easy to install, configure and maintain and can be remotely managed.