Ceragon - Case Study - Evolution Long Haul - Links Over Water (1)

Case Study

Designing Long-Distance, Over-Water Links Ceragon delivers high capacity microwave links uncompromised by reflective water surfaces or extra-long distances

Overview For many years, designing links over reflective surfaces has been a challenging task for microwave transmission path engineers. As water is a good reflector, the reflected wave can have different phase and amplitude as compared to a line-of-sight wave. This results in multipath fading, and ultimately leads to a high level of errors and signal interruptions. In addition, layers in the atmosphere with varying temperatures and humidities may cause “ducting”, a well-known problem in long radio paths. To address this problem and ensure reliable communication links, engineers need to perform special performance calculations, as well as have extensive experience in designing over-water microwave links.

Water reflections, line-of-sight and harsh weather conditions Water reflections, line-of-sight considerations and corrosive environments are factors to consider when designing over-water microwave links. Space diversity and high system gain to minimize the effect of multipath fading, antenna height vs. earth curvature calculations, use of ruggedized radio - all of these need to be taken into account to ensure the highest possible link availability.

The solution Throughout the years, Ceragon has proved itself to be a reliable partner for customers building their networks across the islands or requiring highly reliable links for critical offshore environments. With radios built to withstand the harsh conditions of the North Sea, and highly qualified engineering teams with the expertise to overcome the challenges of still, tropical water surfaces, Ceragon has gained the reputation of a highly trusted transmission solution provider. This paper focuses on four cases of over-water network deployments: •

Maldives: Dhiraagu, Gadhdhoo - Fuva Mulaku, 66 km from 120m towers at sea level

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Venezuela: Telefonica Venezuela, Apretadero – Los Roques, 172 km

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Equatorial Guinea: RTV EG, Pico Basilé - Monte Douba, 241 km The world’s longest over-water, all-IP link

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The North Sea: Talisman Energy, Yme - Bjerkreim, 123 km The world’s longest microwave radio hop to an offshore rig

Dhiraagu, Maldives Gadhdhoo - Fuva Mulaku, 66 km from 120m towers at sea level Best capacity compared to competition Customer: Dhiraagu, 35 hops Longest sea hop: Gadhdhoo - Fuva Mulaku, 66 km from 120m towers at sea level Configurations and equipment: 7 GHz, LH 4+1, 6+1; Combiner Space Diversity; Evolution Long Haul SDH Application: Mobile Ceragon delivered a turn-key solution, providing highly reliable long distance links to cover the entire territory of the Maldives, including its most distant atolls. The project involved sophisticated path calculations to consider the flat reflective water surfaces as well as the earth curvature factor. As the towers had to be erected right from the sea level, they had to be as high as 120 meters to provide for the reliable transmission from one atoll to another. Specially designed raft foundations allowed building towers directly on the water-logged atoll ground.

Venezuela High-capacity over-water link, 172 km Customer: Telefonica Venezuela - Movistar, 6 hops over water Longest sea hop: Apretadero – Los Roques, 172 km (40Mbps) Configurations and equipment: 1+1 Ethernet, 1+1/3+1/7+1 STM-1 Co-channel, Combiner Space Diversity; Evolution Long Haul Application: Mobile Ceragon delivered a turn-key solution, employing its long term expertise and fieldproven radio to build high capacity communication links over long distances, over large amounts of warm Central American waters. Special care was taken to neutralize the thermodynamically unstable atmosphere and the resulting temperature inversion. Water reflections and signal fading were optimally countered with accurate antenna spacing.

Equatorial Guinea Pico Basilé - Monte Douba, 241 km The world’s longest over-water, all-IP link Customer: RTV EGm, 41 links Longest sea hop: Pico Basilé - Monte Douba, 241 km Configurations and equipment: 7 GHz, LH 4+1, 6+1; Combiner Space Diversity; Evolution Series Long Haul SDH, NetMaster NMS Application: Broadcast RTV EG is the national broadcasting operator of Equatorial Guinea. Committed to providing the citizens of Equatorial Guinea with high-quality broadcast services and full national coverage, RTV EG set out to build a reliable transmission network. While neither fiber nor satellite solutions could satisfy the operator’s CAPEX and OPEX requirements, microwave technology proved to be a truly cost-effective option. To connect two parts of the country, Malabo, the capital, and the continental area, the operator had to overcome the water path of 241 km. This meant that a high capacity over-water link had to be built across the sea. Ceragon delivered a turn-key solution, providing field survey, frequency planning, installation and commissioning services. The project covered the entire territory of Equatorial Guinea, providing high capacity broadcast backbone for the whole country and connecting the capital, Malabo, to the continental area via a 241 km link. This link is today’s longest all-IP microwave over-water link. Starting from Pico Basilé, the highest summit on the island of Bioko with an altitude of 9,878 ft (3,011 m), it traverses 241 km of ocean surface to reach the destination tower in Monte Douba. Apart from using high performance radio, it was essential to provide high link margin to overcome the multipath fading effect and ensure the best possible quality of the broadcasting service.

Evolution radio 4-40 GHz 10 Mb/s – 1.6 Gb/s Ethernet & TDM

The North Sea Yme - Bjerkreim, 123 Km The world’s longest microwave radio hop to an offshore rig Customer: Talisman Energy Inc. Longest sea hop: Yme - Bjerkreim, 123 km Configurations and equipment: Evolution IP Long Haul radio, split-mount, 4 carrier system: 4 x 32Mb/s totaling 128Mb/s; ATEX EExP Zone 1 PointLink equipment (2.0m); Quadruple Space Diversity Split in two branching units (custom design) Application: Offshore Talisman Energy Inc. is one of Canada’s largest petroleum companies with presence all over the globe, having its main operating areas in North America, Scandinavia and Southeast Asia. In 2009, Talisman started the re-development project of the previously abandoned Yme oil field, located 100 km off the coast of Norway. Apart from redeveloping the wells and oil storage tanks, Talisman had to build a high capacity communication link to connect the rig to the mainland across the waters of the North Sea.

PointLink MKII 2.9m/9.5 ft Dome

Using its advanced PointLink system and Evolution radio, Ceragon delivered a high capacity radio link not affected by fading, harsh weather conditions or rig movements. The microwave link deployed by Ceragon is the main link, while satellite connection is used as a low capacity backup link. Today, the link to Yme site is the world’s longest overwater link to an offshore installation, providing the capacity of up to 128Mb/s. Ceragon provided a turnkey solution, providing field survey, performance calculations, frequency planning, installation and commissioning services to deliver a reliable high capacity over-water link. Having to comply with very stringent requirements dictated by a hazardous offshore environment, Ceragon successfully delivered a solution connecting the Bjerkreim station on the mainland with the offshore rig at Yme.

About Ceragon Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ: CRNT) is the #1 wireless backhaul specialist. We provide innovative, flexible and cost-effective wireless backhaul solutions that enable mobile operators and other wired/wireless service providers to deliver 2G/3G, 4G/LTE and other broadband services to their subscribers. Ceragon’s high-capacity, solutions use microwave technology to transfer voice and data traffic while maximizing bandwidth efficiency, to deliver more capacity over longer distances under any deployment scenario. Based on our extensive global experience, Ceragon delivers turnkey solutions that support service provider profitability at every stage of the network lifecycle enabling faster time to revenue, cost-effective operation and simple migration to all-IP networks. As the demand for data pushes the need for ever-increasing capacity, Ceragon is committed to serve the market with unmatched technology and innovation, ensuring effective solutions for the evolving needs of the marketplace. Our solutions are deployed by more than 430 service providers in over 130 countries. Visit Ceragon at www.ceragon.com.

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PointLink MK 2.0m/6.6ft Dual Axis Microwave radio link system for offshore communication