Europe : Harris Corporation unveiled an entirely new microwave radio architecture—TRuepoint™—the first Harris radio with universal applicability. Providing SDH and PDH in a single platform, Harris designed TRuepoint to meet current and future needs of all network operators, including mobile, private network, government, and access service providers. TRuepoint is currently in field trials with a leading cellular network operator.

“Clearly, this is a breakthrough development by our Microwave Communications Division,” commented Howard L. Lance, chairman and CEO of Harris. “TRuepoint, based on Harris’ 50 years of experience with network operators worldwide, was conceived two years ago and represents the most significant development ever undertaken by Harris Microwave, with development costs exceeding $35 million.”

Key technological advances of TRuepoint include its ability to migrate from 4 to 180 Mbits/s on one radio, and its ability to support all operating frequency bands from 6 to 38 GHz and network interfaces for E rates, T rates, STM1, OC3, 10baseT, and 100baseT.

Internal network multiplexing capabilities support circuit grooming and add/drop multiplexing for improved efficiency and reduced network cost.

The mixed network interfaces are particularly valuable for CDMA, GSM and GPRS operators who plan to overlay 3G IP networks. TRuepoint is available in stand-alone and fully protected configurations. For all operators TRuepoint provides the ability to change network interfaces and increase transmission capacity without changing outdoor equipment or indoor chassis.

“TRuepoint represents the perfect balance between flexibility and cost-effectiveness,” said Guy Campbell, president of Harris Microwave Communications Division. “It provides our customers with an extremely competitive, multi-service platform that can grow, change, and adapt to meet their network requirements at any stage of development.”

The availability of a wide range of capacities and frequencies is a function of TRuepoint’s programmable radio design, which comprises a universal core platform architecture and selectable options for interfaces, capacities, and frequencies. TRuepoint’s outdoor unit is capacity independent, its indoor unit is frequency independent, and the modem can be programmed to match almost any frequency plan with modulation rates up to 256 QAM.

"For international markets, TRuepoint offers an easier and faster way to establish and expand a high performance wireless network," said Darryl Parker, Harris’ vice president of international sales. "It meets all international standards and offers a pay as you grow approach, which is particularly relevant in emerging markets."

Additional key features of TRuepoint include advanced FEC (forward error correction) schemes for bandwidth and system gain optimization, automatic transmit power control, reverse channel switching, built-in self diagnostics, embedded SNMP (simple network management protocol), dynamic bandwidth allocation, and many additional options.

With TRuepoint, Harris has redefined microwave radio technology. The unique architecture of the core platform reduces both capital expenditures and life cycle costs while meeting all international and North American standards. The wide range of capacities, interfaces, modulation schemes, frequency and channel plans, and transmit power levels are made available to meet the requirements of any network anywhere in the world.