• Building a Last Mile broadband network without a diverse and robust Middle Mile to support it will be a waste of grant dollars. Wireless backhaul solutions such as licensed microwave and gigabit Ethernet solutions provide very cost effective alternatives to expensive fiber optic cabling (and trenching).

• Wireless backhaul solutions are just as reliable as fiber optic cable

• Wireless backhaul networks can be planned in a matter of days as opposed to years for fiber optic cabling

• Wireless Middle Mile infrastructure may be an important priority for the BTOP

• Public sector IT directors

• Incumbent telecom operators

• WiMAX solution providers

• Vendors for WiMAX and/or the enterprise industries

• Enterprise personnel responsible for computing and communications

• Investors in the WiMAX space and/or enterprise automation

Executive Summary 4
Wireless Middle Mile Solutions 5
Backhaul Requirements 9
Licensed Microwave Wireless Backhaul Solutions 10
Licenses protect the links 11
Gigabit Ethernet Wireless Backhaul Solutions 13
60 GHz: Millimeter-wave 13
80 GHz: E-Band 13
Advantages of the 60 and 80 GHz Bands 14
Very Narrow Beamwidth 14
Range and Throughput 15
Security 16
Quality of Service (QoS) 17
Interference mitigation 18
Frequency Reuse 19
Rain fades 19
Reliability/availability 20
Ease of Licensing: E-Band in the US 20
Conclusion 20
Architecture for Middle Mile Infrastructure Networks 22
Considerations?? 22
Backhaul Architectures 23
Star 23
Mesh 24
Ring 27
Consecutive Point Network 29
Conclusion 32
About the Author 33

Tables

Table 1 Comparison of wireless backhaul technologies 5
Table 2 comparisons pf beamwidths for wireless backhaul solutions 15
Table 3 Range and throughput parameters for 60 and 80 GHz backhaul solutions 15