
ASIA
Hong Kong : RAD Data Communications has announced that at GSM Africa
2005, to be held November 30-December 1 in Cape Town, it will unveil
several unique solutions for reducing carrier expenses by maximising
cellular backhaul traffic over expensive satellite links.
"In many
areas of the world, the rapid growth of voice and data communications
usage has outpaced the deployment of network infrastructures,"
states Gaby Junowicz, Business Development Director at RAD Data Communications.
"This is especially true in Africa, where for reasons of geography,
history and topography, the laying of copper or fibre landlines has
been slow and in many cases, prohibitively expensive," he adds.
"To overcome this situation, many local carriers and enterprises
in Africa resort to satellite links for their communications transport
needs."
Satellite networks
are an effective way to quickly open reliable lines of communications
over great distances, but satellite time is expensive. It is also
billed according to the quantity of bandwidth consumed, so cellular
operators that have opted for such satellite resources are under ceaseless
pressure to implement whatever measures are available to maximise
bandwidth efficiencies. The cellular backhaul links utilise A-bis
and A-ter protocols, which incorporate compressed voice. Additional
compression to further minimise bandwidth, therefore, is not a viable
option. "Cellular operators are looking for a solution that maximises
the amount of voice traffic that can be transported over the available
satellite bandwidth, yet still support the necessary features to preserve
high voice quality and associated signalling," Junowicz explains.
Field-Proven Experience
in Africa
"RAD's Vmux-400
A-bis and A-ter Optimization Gateway is the ideal product solution,"
notes Toby Korall, Senior Product Line Manager at RAD. "Having
been successfully deployed in several applications in Africa and interoperable
with equipment from other major vendors, the Vmux-400 ensures that
satellite links are utilised as efficiently as possible by eliminating
inefficiencies by not transmitting idle and silent frames," he
continues. "In this way, the Vmux-400 can reduce satellite bandwidth
by 50 per cent and more, enabling satellite service providers to offer
their customers a more attractive complete solution."
Product functions,
moreover, have been tested in various codec environments, including
HR (half rate), FR (full rate), EFR (enhanced full rate), and AMR
(adaptive multiple rates) - the codec used in 3G cellular applications.
The Vmux-400, in fact, features a number of unique enhancements that
make it ideal for cellular operators bridging both 2.5G GSM/GPRS and
3G EDGE environments. It supports, for example, both A-bis and A-ter
protocols, and offers a unique, cost-cutting solution for supporting
both GPRS and EDGE data traffic over multiple timeslots. The product
is exceptionally suitability for cellular applications over IP networks.
"Since cellular networks are synchronic, clock regeneration over
asynchronous IP transport networks represents a challenge," Korall
concludes. "RAD, however, has solved this problem with advanced
clock recovery algorithms that have been implemented in the Vmux-400."
About RAD
Established in
1981, privately owned RAD Data Communications has achieved international
recognition as a major manufacturer of high quality access equipment
for data communications and telecommunications applications. These
solutions serve the data and voice access requirements of service
providers, incumbent and new carriers, and enterprise networks, by
reducing infrastructure investment costs while boosting competitiveness
and profitability. The company's installed base exceeds 9,000,000
units and includes more than 150 carriers and operators around the
world. These customers are supported by 23 RAD offices and more than
200 distributors in 105 countries.