BridgeWave Communications has announced that commercial production of Navigator, its revolutionary 6GHz-42GHz microwave system, has commenced following the completion of successful customer trials.
The company expects to deliver before year-end hundreds of systems already on order from customers in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East, and to accelerate production to meet purchase orders received for shipments in calendar 4Q18 and the first half of calendar 2019.
The demand for Navigator is continuing to escalate, the company says, because the radio system delivers features previously unavailable in licensed microwave, minimizing CAPEX and OPEX.
These unique features include:
- The ability to combine dual subcarriers in each transceiver to transport over 2.5 Gbps in a single Dual Transceiver (DT) radio using two 80MHz channels in XPIC configuration;
- Modulations up to 4096QAM with ultra-wide channel bandwidths up to 112MHz (ETSI) and 160MHz (ANSI) to maximize capacity and range;
- 4×4 MIMO to quadruple throughput of a single channel;
- Customer-replaceable diplexers to minimize product lead times and inventory stocking costs;
- Flexibility to use each radio as a high band or low band unit, minimizing the need for sparing;
- A dual 10GbE interface that enables a simple, single fiber run to the radio;
- An adaptable antenna interface that allows operators to upgrade legacy networks with minimum investment and service disruption;
- Integrated software features like ACM and QoS, eliminating the need and associated costs of additional software
- Advanced carrier ethernet features enabled with a single software key; and
- A minimal set of upgrade features to simplify radio configuration, installation, and support.
- Navigator is available in single and dual transceiver models, Navigator ST and Navigator DT, respectively. Network operators can order either model in “base” configurations without diplexers installed, or fully configured. With Navigator systems, operators now have unprecedented flexibility to support multiple network configurations and applications, optimize networks for the highest capacity and range, upgrade legacy networks, and speed up deployments.
“Our goal is to deliver products that solve customer problems, and that’s why Navigator was designed incorporating our own modem and RF chips,” said Sanjay Nagpal, senior vice president, global sales and marketing, REMEC Broadband Wireless Networks, BridgeWave Communications, and Sage SatCom. “This investment has enabled us to push microwave technology beyond what has currently existed in the market to provide more capacity, performance, and backhaul flexibility at lower cost, and it explains the high demand for Navigator. Now that we are in full production, we can meet that demand, and we look forward to working with customers to future-proof their networks with Navigator.”
BridgeWave backhaul systems increase backhaul network capacity without the hassles and costs of new or leased fiber. In addition to Navigator microwave systems supporting the 6-42GHz frequency bands, BridgeWave offers systems supporting the 70-80GHz frequency bands, including its flagship 80GHz system, the Flex4G-10000 delivering up to 10Gbps; Flex4G-LITE, delivering up to 3Gbps; and the entry-level Flex4G-1000, delivering up to 1Gbps.
