CAMPBELL, Calif., March 15, 2010 – Exalt Communications today announced that it would unveil at the CTIA show next week its complete family of all-outdoor fiber-quality microwave backhaul systems, the Air Series, for edge to core 4G/LTE networks. The Air Series includes the company’s new ExtremeAir™ systems delivering 1 Gbps-plus throughput and featuring the fastest single channel radios available in sub-60 GHz bands, as well as its previously announced ExploreAir® and ExtendAir® systems. Exalt has designed the Air Series primarily for macrocell, microcell, and picocell backhaul. In addition to operating on the standard and customary FCC and ITU/ETSI bands, these systems operate on non-traditional and emerging licensed frequency bands and license-exempt spectrum largely unused until now. 

With global mobile data traffic expected to increase more than 30 times by 2015, Exalt is continuing to drive innovation in microwave technology to ensure that mobile operators can meet that demand. Air Series systems feature:

Higher per-carrier throughput over greater distances providing far greater deployment flexibility, much faster time-to-market, and lower CAPEX than new fiber;

• Support for world bands 2 GHz to 43 GHz plus non-traditional bands including LMDS (such as28 GHz), 24 GHz, 24 GHz DEMS, and 42 GHz, giving mobile operators the option of additional spectrum to backhaul traffic from the escalating number of microcell and picocell sites they will deploy over the next few years. And as regulatory authorities such as the FCC in the US and Ofcom in the UK release new spectrum for licensing, Exalt will quickly support these emerging bands to give mobile operators even greater spectrum flexibility in microwave system deployment.
• Field-replaceable diplexers that allow single-unit sparing for an entire band, reducing the cost of licensed radio spares by 50% to 90% compared to split-mount or other all-outdoor systems.
• Errorless and jitterless adaptive modulation, fully configurable in fine steps from QPSK to 256QAM, with integrated variable QoS for multiple traffic types
•  Integrated XPIC (ExtremeAir only) enabling dual-carrier, single channel, and single antenna operation.
• User-selectable, embedded state-of the-art data compression for additional spectral efficiency
• IP-oriented asymmetrical transmission in all non-traditional licensed bands such as LMDS 28 GHz, as well as license-exempt bands such as 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 24GHz
• “Zero-footprint” design requiring no internal cabinet space or cooling, resulting in better energy-efficiency; higher performance due to design efficiencies possible in a fully integrated system; higher system gain due to minimum RF loss between the radio and the antenna; easier deployment; more cost-effective; simpler to maintain.

“As mobile operators re-architect their networks to manage the unstoppable growth of data traffic, yesterday’s backhaul solutions are no longer viable,” said Amir Zoufonoun, president and CEO of Exalt Communications. “That’s why we have designed the Air Series, which enables mobile operators to rapidly expand coverage beyond the metro and substantially increase backhaul network capacity, leverage all available options for spectrum utilization, and lower costs – all benefits that result in a more robust, future-driven infrastructure and a better bottom line.”

The Exalt Microwave Backhaul Product Portfolio

All Exalt microwave backhaul systems – indoor, outdoor and split-mount – offer guaranteed link availability, guaranteed throughput and low, constant latency. Systems are available in world bands from 2 to 43 GHz and in capacities from 25 Mbps to 1000 Mbps per channel, providing a range of options to fit countless network applications. Designed to enable a smooth transition to IP, they offer native support for both TDM and Ethernet, and are fully software configurable and upgradeable. For easy and secure management using third-party network management systems, Exalt systems support SNMP v1, v2c and v3. Data security is provided by available FIPS 197-compliant AES 128-bit and 256-bit encryption that adds zero latency to the transmission. To simplify installation and maintenance, all Exalt systems feature an embedded manual and most include a built-in spectrum analyzer.