Laser-Radio Provides New

Alternative for Backhaul

Meeting operator requirements for capacity, reach,
and availability

Contents

About the authors

Summary................................................................. 3
Ovum view............................................................3
Introduction............................................................. 3
Requirements for LTE mobile backhaul.................. 4
What do operators need?....................................4
Solutions for mobile backhaul................................. 5
Fixed solutions for mobile backhaul: Fiber........5
Wireless solutions for mobile backhaul.............5
Financial analysis.................................................... 6
AOptix Intellimax:
A New Alternative for Transport............................. 9
Introduction............................................................. 9
Diverse frequencies create robust platform........... 9

Ron Kline
Ron Kline is a principal analyst in Ovums Network
Infrastructure group. With over 29 years of industry
experience that includes 18 years working for a large
North American service provider, Ron has an in-depth
knowledge of network technology combined with a strong
business-oriented approach to problem solving. He is
responsible for the overall direction of Ovums North
American optical networking research, its network
infrastructure vendor strategies research, and its
mobile backhaul research. Ron specializes in DWDM,
bandwidth management, aggregation, and carrier
Ethernet technologies used in both wireline and wireless
networking applications.

Compensating for twist and sway.................... 10

Simplified installation and link alignment....... 10
AOptix and critical macrocell
backhaul requirements......................................... 10
Fiber performance
at wireless economics........................................... 11
Dimitris Mavrakis
Dimitris Mavrakis is a Principal Analyst with Ovum. He is
part of the Intelligent Networks team where he covers a
range of topics including LTE, LTE-A, 5G, SDN, NFV, WiFi,
IoT, network APIs and identifying how under-the-radar
technologies may disrupt or improve the mobile value
chain.
Dimitris is also actively involved in Ovum's consulting
business and has led several projects on behalf of Tier-1
operators and key vendors.

Copyright Ovum 2015. All rights reserved.

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Summary
In brief

In todays 4G/LTE wireless networks, there are many cell-site topologies, configurations, and sizes, each with a specific
set of backhaul capacity and performance needs. As we enter into the era of LTE-Advanced, single cell sites will start
to need capacities of 1Gbps and greater as a baseline capacity. With 5G looming on the horizon, carriers are now
recognizing the need to plan for backhaul capacity growth beyond 1Gbps.
Fiber delivers the capacity, reach, and availability required by most modern telecoms applications including mobile
backhaul. However, fiber deployment, even when it is feasible, can take months, partly because obtaining rights of way
can be challenging, notwithstanding the high deployment cost.
Given these challenges, mobile operators are turning to wireless-based microwave and millimeter-wave technologies,
but these technologies often sacrifice performance in the three most critical network parameters of capacity,
distance, and availability. A hybrid solution that combines an optical laser (through free space) and millimeter-wave
radio has emerged that is unique in its ability to provide a combination of guaranteed high capacity, extended reach,
and high availability at an affordable cost.

100000
10000
1000
100
10

5G

LTE R8 (20 MHz)

LTE (10 MHz)

WiMAX (10 MHz)

HSPA+ R7

HSUPA R6

HSDPA R5

0.1

EV-DO Rev. B

1
LTE-Advanced R10
(100 MHz)

If given a choice, most operators will choose fiber as their

preferred backhaul solution due to its reliability and nearly
limitless capacity. However, fiber deployment costs are high

Figure 1: Per-sector MBH bandwidth requirements for mobile

technologies

EV-DO Rev. A

Cost and reliability are significant challenges for

mobile network operators that have large transmission
requirements to support backhaul applications. Depending
on the type of topology deployed in a typical 3G network
today, backhaul requirements could exceed 1Gbps on the
transmission network used to aggregate backhaul traffic
to the network core. Moving to LTE and LTE-A significantly
raises capacity requirements on the transmission network
used to backhaul traffic to the network core. Furthermore,
in dense urban environments where the capacities are the
highest, the number of cell sites increases substantially,
placing additional pressure on the backhaul network.

Figure 1 shows the theoretical mobile backhaul bandwidth

requirements for a single sector; total mobile backhaul
(MBH) capacity for a cell site is determined by adding the
number of sectors.

1x EV-DO

Introduction

and deployment times are long, plus it is often impractical

or impossible to install a fiber network. Therefore, nearly
half of all mobile backhaul globally is provided wirelessly,
using microwave and millimeter-wave RF technology
that is reaching critical limitations for the capacity and
performance required for LTE-A and 5G networks.

WCDMA R4

Cost, capacity, distance, and availability are significant

challenges for mobile network operators and others
with large transmission requirements for backhaul.
Fiber is the preferred solution but it is not always
available; weather conditions can have an impact on
microwave and millimeter-wave radio systems that will
then affect transmission performance.
Hybrid laser-radio solutions based on combining free
space optics and millimeter-wave radio have emerged
that meet mobile operator critical requirements for
capacity, reach and availability.

Mbps

Ovum view

Source: Ovum

2015 Ovum. All rights reserved. www.ovum.com

Requirements for LTE mobile backhaul

What do operators need?

Cost, capacity, distance, and reliability (availability) are

significant challenges for mobile network operators and
others with large transmission requirements for backhaul
and access network applications. As 4G/LTE capabilities
are added to todays 2G/3G networks, macrocell
backhaul and aggregation network requirements are
rising rapidly from megabits per second to gigabits per
second. Although fiber is the ideal solution due to its near
limitless capacity and high availability, much of the time
it is impractical or impossible to install, giving operators
a dilemma of how best they can support requirements for
capacity, distance, and availability.

deployed now have a path to support higher bandwidth in

the future.

Availability
Backhaul equipment must be carrier grade, supporting
a BER of less than 10-6 and maintain 99.999%
availability regardless of weather conditions. This is a
strict requirement for mobile network operators which
have very low tolerance for downtime. Carrier grade
(sometimes called carrier class) refers to the equipments
availability to provide service. Carrier-grade systems are
typically engineered to stay in operation 99.999% of the
time meaning that, over one year, the system downtime
would not exceed 5.26 minutes.

When looking for an alternative to fiber, the three metrics

of capacity, availability, and distance must be assessed
simultaneously to evaluate technologies for carrier-grade

Availability is critical to mobile network operators. If

backhaul systems are not in operation, mobile services
are negatively affected. Fiber systems are typically

wireless transport. Table 1 compares key parameters for

most macrocell backhaul wireless transport options.

engineered with a backup path, and systems automatically

switch to the protection path in < 50 milliseconds on
loss of signal. Weather conditions can have an impact on
microwave and millimeter-wave radio systems that will in
turn affect the transmission performance. To overcome
this, radio vendors use adaptive modulation techniques
that lower line rates to maintain availability; however, this
creates a potential bottleneck in the backhaul network as
line rates slow.

Capacity
Backhaul bandwidth requirements for LTE and LTE-A
are increasing, as indicated in Figure 1. Traffic in a 3G
network gets aggregated as it makes its way to the
network core and can easily exceed 1Gbps on some
backhaul links. LTE in particular requires 10 times
the bandwidth of a 3G network and LTE-A bandwidth
requirements are six times that of LTE (nearly 100 times
higher than 3G) pushing backhaul requirements to the
range of 12Gbps for each base station. While 5G has
not yet been officially defined, early demonstrations and
prototypes use a 5Gbps downlink, meaning per-sector
bandwidth requirement would be 10Gbps, 350 times
more than 3G. It is critical that backhaul solutions being

Reach
Mobile cell networks are configured in a hierarchical
mesh. Traffic generated at cell site locations is
transported back to an aggregation point (sometimes
called a super cell) where it is combined (aggregated) with
other traffic for transport to the mobile switch. Average
distances from cell tower locations to aggregation points

Table 1: Wireless solutions for urban/suburban backhaul

Technology options

Deployment
cost

Recurring
charges

Scalability

Deployment
time

Capacity

Typical CIR

Typical
distance

Typical
distance (CIR)

Fiber (own)

High

Low

Excellent

Months

Tbps

Tbps

~600km

~600km

Fiber (lease*)

Low

High

Excellent

Weeks

Tbps

Tbps

~600km

~600km

Unlicensed microwave

Medium/ low

Low

Poor

Weeks

10Mbps- 3Gbps
(using XPIC,
MIMO, and
compression)

N/A - cannot
guarantee rate
because of
interference

~924km

N/A - cannot
guarantee rate
because of
interference

Licensed microwave

Medium

Low

Good

Weeks

500Mbps- 2Gbps
(using XPIC,
MIMO, and
compression)

1Gbps

~50km

~20km

Millimeter-wave radio

Medium

Low

Good

Weeks

1 -3Gbps

1Gbps

~4km

~2km

Hybrid laser-radio

Medium

Low

Good

Weeks

2Gbps

2Gbps

110km

110km

*Leasing assumes facilities are in place.

Source: Ovum

2015 Ovum. All rights reserved. www.ovum.com

typically range from 1km to 8km. Reach is a big issue

for backhaul technologies because, if a signal needs to
be repeated (regenerated) because it is too weak to be
recognized, additional equipment must be installed. For
fiber-based solutions, reach severely affects cost as the
longer a span is, the more it will cost to install. Previous
research by Ovum indicates that the installation of fiber
for distances greater than 1.75 miles is difficult to justify
given the high deployment cost, particularly in urban
environments where trenching may be required.

Deployment time
Mobile operators globally spend billions of dollars each
year acquiring wireless spectrum to build out network
coverage. Much of the time cell tower locations are in
remote areas, and backhaul choices are limited. Running
new fiber is not only expensive, it often takes months to
plan and construct. Backhaul transmission equipment

deployments of new fiber take months compared with

wireless deployments that can be completed in weeks.
Fiber has high initial deployment costs for cable,
splicing, trenching, right of ways, etc., plus the cost of
the optical transport and aggregation equipment that
provides the transport service. There is also a small
recurring cost for space/power rental at cell sites and
for equipment maintenance.
Since fiber deployments are costly and take a long time
to plan and construct, deployments are generally focused
on urban areas where fiber owners can get a better ROI
by supporting multiple applications, such as residential
GPON or Ethernet, in addition to mobile backhaul. In
many cases, owners of fiber also provide lit services in a
wholesale model. Previous research by Ovum indicates
that mobile operators across the industry pay 1015% of
annual opex to third parties for access. When leasing a

must be rapidly deployed and turned up. Ovums Mobile

Subscriptions and Revenue Forecast: 201419 indicate that
global mobile data revenue is expected to be $442bn in
2015, 10% more than 2014. As most data revenues are
driven by 4G LTE; failing to get LTE cell sites up and
running quickly could put billions of dollars of potential
revenue at risk.

fiber-based service, the cost to the operator results in

an operation expense that recurs each month. As noted
in Ovums Mobile Backhaul Forecast Report: 201419,
published in August 2014, approximately 50% of all cell
sites globally do not have fiber today.

Low cost

Approximately 50% of all mobile backhaul globally

is provided using wireless technology with the vast
majority being microwave RF that typically operates
in the 6, 11, 18, 23, and 28GHz frequency bands.
Deployment of microwave radio requires a one-time
capital cost and a small recurring cost (for space/
power rental and maintenance). Microwave radios can
be installed at a much lower cost and much faster
than fiber but transmission is affected by atmospheric
conditions such as rain which reduces performance.
Often the system transmission rate is lowered (rateadaptation) to mitigate interference from weather.
Typical microwave systems support up to 500Mbps
capacity and have a reach of 30 miles which may vary
depending on the applications. For example, longer
distances are typically achieved by using the lower
frequency bands; however, the lower frequencies are
generally congested and may be difficult to obtain
and use. Higher frequencies support a higher data
rate but often sacrifice distance. System capacity can
be increased into the gigabit range by using multiple
RF channels, but this increases cost as each channel
requires additional electronics as well as spectrum
licenses. Supporting mobile backhaul requirements

Mobile operators around the world are upgrading their

mobile RANs to support LTE and LTE-A technologies.
At the same time, they must also upgrade their mobile
backhaul networks to provide more bandwidth. Ovums
analysis of mobile backhaul indicates that mobile network
operators globally spent $8.8bn on mobile backhaul in
2014. Since operators devote so much investment in this
area, cost-efficient backhaul solutions are critical to
business plans.

Solutions for mobile backhaul

Fixed solutions for mobile backhaul: Fiber

Fiber provides the highest capacity for mobile backhaul,

with a low bit-error rate, and can transmit hundreds of
kilometers before the signal needs to be regenerated.
If fiber is available, it is often the preferred choice
for backhaul. Unfortunately, fiber is not available
everywhere, and there are instances where the cost
will be too great because nearby backbone fiber does
not exist, right of way is not available, or there are
physical obstructions such as highways or rivers that
make construction impossible. Buried fiber is two to
three times more expensive than aerial fiber. In addition,

Wireless solutions for mobile backhaul

Microwave RF

2015 Ovum. All rights reserved. www.ovum.com

for LTE and LTE-A over a single channel will be

technologically difficult for microwave RF.

Millimeter-wave RF
Millimeter-wave RF, defined by the ITU as Extremely
High Frequency (EHF), operates in the 30300GHz range.
The subset of the EHF range used for telco applications
typically operates in the 70/80 GHz frequency spectrum
known as the E-band radios. Millimeter-wave RF can
support higher transmission rates in the 12Gbps range
but its system reach is much shorter than microwave RF,
and the technology is highly susceptible to rain fade and
absorption, requiring a reduction in data rate to mitigate
interference from weather. Millimeter-wave beams are
much narrower than microwave beams and, as a result,
the millimeter-wave RF equipment must be installed on
solid structures to avoid alignment problems. Given the
technologys shortcomings, its most often deployed for

no licensing, and the transmission media (air) is free.

While these are highly desirable capabilities for backhaul,
the stability and quality of an FSO-only link is highly
dependent on atmospheric factors such as rain, fog, dust,
heat, and wind, limiting the technologys usefulness for
supporting terrestrial applications. By combining FSO
with millimeter-wave radio, much of the attenuation from
atmospheric conditions can be mitigated, resulting in a
high-capacity, highly available signal suitable for mobile
backhaul applications.
How does hybrid laser-radio technology work?
Hybrid laser-radio technology transmits redundant
information over two diverse frequencies and then uses
advanced algorithms at the receiving end to composite the
data from the two frequencies in real time, providing an
error-free signal with bit error rates that are comparable
to fiber-based systems.

small-cell backhaul applications.

Hybrid solutions
Given the choice, most operators will choose fiber
as their preferred backhaul solution due to its high
availability and near unlimited capacity. However,
in many cases, fiber is not an option, meaning that
operators have to deploy a wireless-based solution.
Signal attenuation caused by atmospheric conditions
leads to higher bit error ratios (BER) and inhibits
the capacity of microwave systems and the reach
of millimeter-wave technologies for macrocell site
backhaul. To overcome these issues, vendors are
developing hybrid solutions that use multi-beam or
multi-path architectures that can mitigate performance
issues caused by weather. One example of these new
hybrid solutions is a technology termed laser-radio
by MIT Technology Review: AOptix is a vendor that has
developed a version of laser-radio technology, used in its
AOptix Intellimax product.
Hybrid laser-radio combines an advanced version of freespace optics (FSO) with millimeter-wave radio frequency
(RF) technologies to create a hybrid transmission system
that operates in all weather conditions with carrier-grade
availability.
FSO is an optical technology that transmits infrared laser
light through free space (in most cases air) rather than
a physical media such as fiber. The technology supports
very high transmission rates with a low BER. Deployment
costs are low, the equipment is easy to install, it requires

2015 Ovum. All rights reserved. www.ovum.com

The hybrid laser-radio technology that is currently

available supports point-to-point transmission at a rate
of 2Gbps for distances up to 10km and can be installed
in a matter of hours compared with fiber that could take
months. The technology has been proven to support much
higher data rates in the range of 80Gbps for military
applications. System costs are comparable with long-haul
microwave systems.

Financial analysis

In order to illustrate the challenges of deploying urban

cellular connectivity in developed markets, Ovum has
used its Network Economics Tool (NET) to model a
cellular network. NET is a cellular network planning and
dimensioning tool which combines Ovums knowledge of
the network with financial analysis to help service providers
decide on network upgrades, new technology rollouts,
how to react to competition, and many other areas. NET
can model any device, over any geography, using almost
every cellular technology available in the market, including
support systems (e.g. backhaul, core network, BSS/OSS,
etc.). A variety of metrics are then produced, including TCO,
NPV, and cost of transporting a GB.
In this particular case, Ovum has used an urban
environment with the assumptions listed below. Although
this is a hypothetical scenario, it illustrates a possible
deployment use case in urban environments, especially as
data demand from smartphones increases:
Area of deployment is a very dense urban area with a
population of 5 million in an area of 350 square km.

 Existing carrier operating in market but deploying new

cell sites due to increased demand
Smartphone penetration nearly 100% in the postpaid
subscriber base
Average smartphone traffic use is 1GB per month,
tablet is 2GB per month, and tethering is 5GB per month
LTE network with wide bandwidth (60MHz) using carrier
aggregation to reach approximately 450Mbps per cell
sector
Cell radius ranges from 600m to 1000m, depending on
geography. In many cases where a larger cell is used,
the system becomes capacity constrained and requires
cell splitting.
There are also several other assumptions a carrier has to
define in order for a data-oriented network to be deployed
in a competitive, developed market. This analysis focuses
on backhaul technologies available in urban areas, which
are somewhat limited considering the demanding nature
of each cell site, and which may require a backhaul
connection in excess of 1Gbps. Only a few technologies
are both available to satisfy this requirement and being
deployed today. It is also assumed that dark fiber is
not available at the cell site, which, in the case of LTE
and LTE-A, may well be due to the denser deployment
and multitude of cell site necessary to satisfy capacity
requirements. It is also noted that a >1Gbps backhaul
connection and an average throughput of 450Mbps
per sector exceeds current traffic demands from end
users (as outlined in the second bullet in the list above).
However, although carriers may be deploying lowerthroughput cellular networks today, these higher speeds
are likely to be reached when LTE becomes mainstream
and data services are more popular. Moreover, 3GPP
Release 12 and 13, followed by 5G, are likely to provide

much faster speeds, so carriers need to deploy the fastest

and most cost-effective backhaul and transport solutions
that are available today.
The backhaul technologies that were benchmarked were:
Fiber rollout: Since dark fiber is not available to the cell
site and in some cases may be more expensive to lease
(due to very high speeds required), it is assumed that
the carrier deploys fiber directly. In urban areas, the
cost to trench may be considerable, making this solution
not cost-effective. In this scenario, it is assumed that
50% of cell sites will be connected through leased fiber
and the other 50% will be connected through new fiber
connections.
Microwave: Typical microwave links are used which
may provide 400500Mbps throughput per link. In many
cases, several links have to be used to cater for higher
throughput or hardened configurations (e.g. larger
antennas, higher power), which significantly increases
the cost. It is assumed that 100% of the backhaul links
are deployed by the carrier.
Hybrid laser-radio: The newest market entry combines
FSO and mm-wave to provide multi-gigabit wireless
connections at a reasonable cost. It is also assumed
that 100% of backhaul links are deployed by the carrier.
These three alternatives may provide >1Gbps connections
to a cell site and provide the robustness a carrier will
require. Figure 2 shows the cost per gigabyte over a fouryear period for each of the alternatives analyzed.
The network deployed in this case consists of 248
base stations during the first year of deployment,
which increase to 332 in the fifth year, due to capacity
constraints. Despite this area being very dense, it is

Figure 2: Cost per gigabyte for different backhaul technologies

Hybrid laser-radio

Fiber deployment

Microwave

3.5

Cost per GB

3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Source: Ovum

2015 Ovum. All rights reserved. www.ovum.com

assumed that new sites are the only way to increase

capacity when a high-bandwidth LTE network is deployed.
The extremely concentrated subscriber base and data
consumption provide a positive business case with ROI
cycles down to a few years.
The net present value (NPV) of these different scenarios
may be calculated by placing further assumptions
regarding revenue targets, including average revenue
per device, subscriber acquisition costs (SAC), subscriber
retention costs (SRC), and a variety of other parameters.
Table 2: Five-year NPV for networks outlined above
Microwave

$795.94m

Fiber deployment

$780.87m

Hybrid laser-radio

$829.49m

Source: Ovum

The NPV of the modeled network is for a five-year period

and, due to the demand for data services, a data-driven

2015 Ovum. All rights reserved. www.ovum.com

network is expected to be a very positive investment.

Also, the US market modeled in this case is likely
to be a saturated market by the end of the modeling
period, pushing subscriber-related costs (SAC and SRC)
considerably higher, thus reducing the NPV values
outlined above. In any case, due to the distributed nature
of the radio access network, backhaul is a major cost
driver which affects the investment in the network. In the
case when dark fiber is not available, Ovums modeling
illustrates that the hybrid laser-radio approach is
expected to be the most positive investment.
Due to the lucrative nature of the urban area, all
scenarios outlined above represent a very positive
business case. It needs to be taken into account that the
average subscriber costs were assumed; they may be
considerably higher, which would constrict the business
case. However, the hybrid laser-radio approach presents
the ideal business case with highest NPV due to the cost
and still meets mobile operator critical requirements for
capacity, reach, and availability.

AOptix Intellimax: A New Alternative for Transport

Introduction
AOptix has commercialized an innovative hybrid solution that provides many of the same benefits of fiber-based
technologies but maintains the flexibility and cost advantage of traditional wireless-based microwave technology.
Intellimax, AOptixs solution, is built on a new and disruptive hybrid technology called laser-radio technology. Laser-radio
combines enhanced versions of free space optics (FSO) and millimeter-wave technologies to create a hybrid transmission
system that supports transmission of a constant data rate of 2Gbps up to a distance of 10km with 99.999% availability
under severe weather conditions. Laser-radio is based on technology first created for military applications, and has been
field-proven in heavy rain, fog, wind, snow, and other extreme weather conditions.

Diverse frequencies create robust platform

Traditional wireless technologies have an inherent weakness in inclement weather due to specific frequency
susceptibilities. Hybrid laser-radio technology addresses these challenges by transmitting redundant information over the
two diverse frequencies (optical and millimeter-wave).
AOptixs innovation was to use advanced algorithms at the receiving end of the hybrid laser-radio combination to merge
together these diverse yet complementary frequencies in real time. The two outputs are fused at the byte level to yield an
error-free signal with bit error rates that are comparable to fiber-based systems. AOptix calls this Advanced Wavelength
Diversity (AWD), and it is the basis for its disruptive technology. Figure 3 shows a conceptual description of how AOptixs
implementation of laser-radio technology and Advanced Wavelength Diversity works.
Figure 3: AOptix Laser-Radio Technology

Source: AOptix

AWD enables carrier-grade availability and constant (non-adaptive) multi-gigabit throughput. At the heart of AWD is the
Dynamic Packet Resourcing (DPR) algorithm, which relies on dual-frequency transmission and real-time packet selection
across the two frequencies to produce an optimal output data stream. The technology enables error-free data transmission
of multi-gigabit capacity over long distances regardless of atmospheric challenges including fog, rain, and snow.
2015 Ovum. All rights reserved. www.ovum.com

Compensating for twist and sway

AOptix uses tracking software it calls Active Beam Steering (ABS) that was originally developed to maintain wireless
high-capacity data links between military aircraft moving at high speeds. ABS allows for real-time automated steering of
Intellimax optical and RF beams. This technology enables maintenance of the link alignment with accuracy of 1/4000th of
a degree and compensates for plus or minus three degrees of tower twist and sway caused by conditions such as heavy
wind, ice, and snow build-up that pose big problems for wireless systems. This enables AOptix Intellimax to be mounted
onto almost any tower or structure, significantly increasing deployment flexibility while reducing costs.

Simplified installation and link alignment

Installation and link alignment for Intellimax is accomplished using fully automated software-driven technology called PointAcquire-Track (PAT) that uses sophisticated beam profiling and lobe tracking techniques to ensure precision tracking of the
main lobe with repeatable results every time for maximum performance. PAT automates a complete link installation in less
than 20 minutes, which significantly reduces the cost of deployment.

AOptix and critical macrocell backhaul requirements

Six key requirements are consistently identified for selecting macrocell backhaul technology: capacity, distance,
performance and availability, speed of deployment, flexibility, and total cost of ownership (TCO). AOptixs Intellimax,
built with laser-radio technology, delivers on each of these critical needs. In Figure 4, the middle column identifies the
service providers specific need for 4G/LTE macrocell backhaul deployment, and the right-hand column identifies what the
AOptix Intellimax solution delivers.
Figure 4: AOptix Intellimax for 4G/LTE macrocell backhaul requirements

Source: AOptix

10

2015 Ovum. All rights reserved. www.ovum.com

Ultimately, the choice of a mobile backhaul solution is always based on the needs at the critical aggregation points in a
service providers network. For the vast majority of macrocell wireless backhaul, this comes down to a decision between
trenching for new fiber, leasing existing fiber, or deploying a wireless solution, whether that is microwave, millimeterwave, or laser-radio technology.
In a situation where carrier-grade availability is non-negotiable, high capacity is demanded, and fiber is too expensive
or unavailable, laser-radio technology provided by the AOptix Intellimax is the optimal solution for the needs of 4G/LTE
backhaul.
The AOptix high-capacity wireless solution is a true fiber alternative that provides advantages both in cost and speed of
deployment. AOptixs Intellimax can be deployed far more rapidly than fiber, and provides a return on investment (ROI)
in six to 12 months compared with trenching or leasing urban fiber connections. Additionally, AOptix Intellimax offers the
flexibility of deploying on any tower or structure, greatly simplifying site identification and network planning.

Fiber performance at wireless economics

Cost is a critical component for service providers trying to stay ahead of the capacity demand curve by upgrading their
transport infrastructure. When determining TCO, organizations need to account for capital expenditure (capex) and
operational expenditure (opex). The biggest challenge to using fiber is the TCO, whether it is a high recurring opex for
leased fiber or a high up-front capex for new fiber deployment.
By using laser-radio technology, the AOptix Intellimax offers bandwidth, distance, and availability at a fraction of the cost
of an equivalent fiber solution. It typically delivers a return on investment (ROI) of less than a year.
With AOptix Intellimax, service providers do not have to choose between high capacity, distance, carrier-grade
availability, or deployment flexibility. It is a viable alternative to fiber that delivers fiber-like performance with the flexibility
of a wireless solution. Designed for telecommunication service providers, enterprises, and government entities, the AOptix
Intellimax family of products delivers multi-gigabit capacity with carrier-grade availability in a fraction of the time and cost
of fiber.

2015 Ovum. All rights reserved. www.ovum.com

11

ABOUT OVUM
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and consulting. With 23 offices across six continents, Ovum offers a truly global perspective on technology and media
markets and provides thousands of clients with insight including workflow tools, forecasts, surveys, market assessments,
technology audits and opinion. In 2012, Ovum was jointly named Global Analyst Firm of the Year by the IIAR.

OUR OBJECTIVES

OUR SERVICES

Message construction and validation

Market education
Go-to-market planning
ROI justification
Pricing and positioning
Competitor tracking
Customer segmentation and targeting
Sales enablement
Business opportunity analysis (sizing/prioritizing)
1-5 year planning
Market entry planning (dynamics/demand)
Competitor tracking (investment/activity)
Information systems support
Numerical and analytical tracking

Benchmark reports
Surveys
Webinars
White papers
Country reports
Company reports
Forecasts
Go-to-market reports
Case studies
Event facilitation
Speaking engagements
Workshops

For more details on Ovum and how we can help your company identify future trends and opportunities, please contact
us at enquiries@ovum.com or visit www.ovum.com. To hear more from our analyst team join our Analyst Community
group on LinkedIn www.ovum.com/linkedin and follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/OvumTelecoms.