RAD Completes its Vmux Family of Optimization Solutions for Cellular Backhaul

RAD Data Communications has announced that at the 3GSM World Congress, to be held February 13-16, 2006 in Barcelona, it will exhibit its complete Vmux family of access solutions for cellular networks.

 

At 3GSM RAD will unveil its new Vmux-420 A-bis (BTS to BSC) and A-ter (BSC-to-MSC) standalone optimization gateway. The Vmux-420 enables mobile operators to make better use of their network resources by offering up to 3:1 bandwidth optimization (assuming 50% average network silence) as well as a 2:1 reduction in the number of E1 ports required. The product is adapted to function in a terrestrial, satellite or microwave environment over packet-switched networks (Ethernet/IP/MPLS), or TDM-based transport. Used together with RAD’s Vmux-2100 voice trunking gateway, which provides A (BSC to MSC) interface and E (MSC to MSC/PSTN) interface optimization, the Vmux-420 can help cellular operators reduce operating expenses (Opex) across the entire backhaul pathway, while enabling them to expand their network infrastructure and introduce new services without incurring additional leased lines costs.

 

The Vmux-420 complements RAD’s Vmux-400 A-bis and A-ter standalone optimization gateway by providing a higher port density in a point-to-multipoint configuration. Both products are fully redundant and scalable, and offer an impressive price/performance ratio.

The Vmux-420 can be connected either over a TDM-based transmission network or a packet-based (Ethernet/IP/MPLS) network. “This flexibility is of enormous importance, given the evolution that the mobile market is undergoing in terms of adopting new transport alternatives,”  states Gaby Junowicz, Director of Business Development for Cellular Networks at RAD Data Communications. “In order to run TDM-based traffic over a packet network, the timing information has to be accurately recovered in order to provide synchronization to the remote base stations,”  he continues. “Due to the synchronous nature of cellular networks, clock regeneration over asynchronous IP transport networks represents a challenge,”  Junowicz notes. “RAD, however, has solved this problem with advanced clock recovery algorithms that have been implemented into the Vmux-420.”

The Vmux-420 is especially attractive for backhaul over satellite applications. “In many areas of the world, the rapid growth of voice and data communications usage has outpaced the deployment of network infrastructures,” Junowicz explains. “When, for reasons of geography, history and topography, the laying of copper or fiber landlines has been slow or prohibitively expensive, local carriers and enterprises may resort to satellite links for their communications transport needs.”

 

Satellite services, however, are billed according to the quantity of bandwidth consumed, so cellular operators that have opted for such resources are under ceaseless pressure to implement whatever measures are available to maximize bandwidth efficiencies. The Vmux-420 ensures that satellite links are utilized as efficiently as possible by eliminating inefficiencies by not transmitting idle and silent frames. This results in bandwidth savings of 50 percent and more, enabling satellite service providers to offer their customers a more attractive complete solution.

Product functions support all relevant codecs, 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-420 features a number of unique features that make it ideal for cellular operators bridging both 2.5G GSM/GPRS and 3G EDGE environments,”  states Toby Korall, Senior Product Line Manager at RAD. “In addition to supporting A-bis and A-ter protocols, it offers a unique, cost-cutting solution for optimizing both GPRS and EDGE data traffic over multiple timeslots, making it exceptionally suitable for cellular applications over IP networks.”

RAD will also be exhibiting at 3GSM the industry-leading Vmux-2100 voice trunking gateway. Deployed by cellular operators on six continents, the Vmux-2100 dramatically reduces voice trunking expenditures for BSC-to-MSC, MSC-to-MSC and MSC-to-PSTN interconnectivity by enabling up to 16 full E1/T1 lines to be extended over a single E1/T1 or Ethernet uplink. The Vmux-2100 can yield full payback within six months, and even as quickly as in 40 days.