Impediments in implementation of Asymmetric Microwave and their solution (Part3 of the Series)

This post is part of a 3 posts series, please click below to read the 1st and 2nd posts:

Part 1: History of Microwave Transmission

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/history-analog-transmission-abdulaziz-khan-pe-pmp?trk=prof-post

Part 2: The time is Now for Asymmetric Microwave

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/time-now-asymmetric-microwavepart2-series-abdulaziz-khan-pe-pmp

In the first two posts I explained that why Microwave Transmission is symmetric and why it should now change to Asymmetric, in this last post I will discuss some apparent impediments in the way of change and how to deal with them:

-        Regulatory Issues

Regulatory issue may be the biggest issue for some regions, broadly speaking there are two types of backhaul spectrum licensing:

 1: Spectrum based licensing

In spectrum based licensing the Regulatory Authority awards fixed spectrum ranges to different operators and the operators plan these frequency ranges as per its own discretion, for example if operator A is awarded a 56MHz band in 23GHz then no other operator will use this band anywhere.

 This scenario is viable for Asymmetric Radio implementation as the Operator do not have to take any approval from anyone and can take the decision itself.

 2: Hop based licensing

In Hop based licensing the Regulatory authority holds all frequency channels and allow any operator to use any channel anywhere based on the authority’s approval and its interference analysis of this particular channel, for example if an operator has an existing link and the link needs capacity up-gradation then it is on the discretion of the regulatory authority to let the operator use the adjacent channel or not.

It is apparent that this will not be an easy scenario for the regulatory authority or the operator to use asymmetric microwave in this scenario. On the operators hand it is not possible as the operator has no control over frequency channel selection and on the Regulator’s hand it will not be an easy task as the regulator has already following an standard frequency distribution method, as per my personal experience most regulator do not agree to adapt to this idea, however if the Telecommunication Unions like ITU, CEPT help the operators in this regard by standardizing Asymmetric Microwave backhaul and the case is discussed with the regulators in a win-win situation then it may be implemented in the next few years.

-        Hardware readiness

Many Hardware vendors have good idea of this concept and some of them ready off-the-shelf, also as the Microwave Radio is completely Software configurable so this will hopefully not be an issue, any vendor not ready yet can implement it through its next software release, as and when required.

-        Planning constraints

The planning of these links will be difficult in the start as the planners who are planning the Microwave Networks are brought up in a Symmetric understanding and this change will take its time to be understood by the planners, however this will also not be a big issue if the planning tools vendors incorporate it in the next version of the tools after which it will just be a new feature to be enabled in the planning tool and the tool will take care of the rest.

-        OSS and Planning tools

For the OSS (NMS) and the planning tools it will not be any difficult task, as per my discussion with some microwave planners this can already be done in some planning tools as the tools is software based and can calculate interference and all other required values based on any frequency allocation, so there is no big need that need to be done on the planning tools side except to make it a known feature not a software glitch.

Conclusion:

·       Microwave Radios are currently working in Symmetric mode and wasting a lot of precious spectrum.

·       New Technologies are spectrum hungry and the promises they have made can not be fulfilled without any paradigm shift.

·       Changing the Microwave to be Asymmetric can be a good enhancement and can boost the Bits/Hertz ratio by at least 50%.

·       The biggest impediment in implementation of this change is Regulation which can be done if the issue is highlighted on all responsible forums.

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Abdul Aziz Khan is a Freelance Blogger, a veteran Telecom Professional having around two decades of diverse Telecom Experience of Network Planning, Project Management, Optimization and Customer Experience Management, he can be contacted on [email protected]