An increasing number of businesses that rely on stable, interference-free, wireless transmission as their core business, such as service providers, are investing in licensed spectrums. This is due to the increased congestion of unlicensed bandwidths in the spectrum, resulting in unreliable connections.

The governing body in South Africa in charge of issuing and controlling the bandwidth licenses is called ICASA. ICASA issues these licenses that offer users a form of guarantee that the specific frequency, as stipulated in the license agreement, will be for the sole use of the said user. This means that all your wireless equipment working on that frequency should perform at a 100% optimal level.

• The frequency should be interference-free. This does not mean that your own devices, depending on how many you use and in what proximity they are to each other, might not cause interference. It merely means that you won’t have to compete with others on the same bandwidth.
• Guaranteed throughput. Because the only interference that you can incur is from your own devices (a problem easily solved with noise reduction technologies) you are guaranteed a stable throughput of whatever your devices are able to achieve.
• Maximum range. Once again, due to lack of competition, your total gain is so much more effective and you are able to reap the benefits of your devices’ individual maximum range.

But what’s so special about SIAE’s licensed FD Microwave link?

SIAE’s ALFOplus is a Full Outdoor, Full IP Next Generation Microwave Radio that works in the licensed 7 to 38GHz spectrum. ALFOplus is a zero-footprint, highly cost-effective solution, fully compatible with 3G, 4G and  LTE nodes, and the ideal solution for a fast and flexible evolution towards full IP networks with the highest radio capacity and performance.

With its advanced Ethernet features and complete synchronization management (SyncE and 1588v2), ALFOplus is a state-of-the-art IP radio, providing the foundation for a leading-edge network. SIAE produce RF components with Best-in-class system gain across all the frequency bands and adopt the latest technological developments to achieving the highest MTBF figures and the lowest power consumption available on the market.

Main applications

• Any G-Mobile backhaul for Access and Aggregation
• Emergency wireless links
• ISP High Capacity LAN to LAN connections
• Last-mile fibre extension for business customers
• Complementary solutions for fibre deployments/Ethernet Extension
• Zero footprint applications

Main features

• FREQUENCY BANDS: 7 to 38Ghz ICASA license bands
• MODULATION SCHEMES: from 4QAM up to 1024 QAM.
• TECHNOLOGIES: High Integrated Base-Band MCICS technology
• CONFIGURATIONS: Unprotected, HSTBY, N+0
• TDM CAPACITY RANGE: Up to 160xE1 Using PWE3
• ETHERNET THROUGHPUT RANGE: 4 Mbit/s → 1 Gbps
• ADVANCED DSP: Channel Digital Pre-distortion, Equaliser and Packet Header Compression
• TRIBUTARY INTERFACES: Multiport Gigabit switch (electrical/optical)
• ARCHITECTURES: Full IP on  Single Board, full outdoor form factor.
• OUTDOOR ARRANGEMENTS: External or integrated low-profile, high-performance antenna systems
• SPECTRUM ARRANGEMENTS: ACAP, CCCP, DUAL CARRIER
• MANAGEMENT OPTIONS: Linux or Unix based NMS, HTML based local access (no flash needed)