Exalt, Mu offer solutions to address onslaught of network traffic

The problem with advanced generation networks is no one really knows how applications are going to impact the networks, so operators will have a difficult time addressing that unknown. Two companies recently introduced products that they say will help operators prepare for the future. Exalt Communications Inc. introduced ExploreAir, a microwave backhaul platform that can enable speeds of up to 1,000 Megabytes per second, while Mu Dynamics Inc. introduced a new testing tool.
Exalt’s ExploreAir
Microwave and fiber are the only options operators have for fourth-generation network backhaul, said Exalt CEO Amir Zoufonoun. While fiber can handle the capacity, it is much more expensive to deploy, anywhere from $100,000 per mile to $200,000 per mile, he said. Microwave can be deployed for less than $20,000 per mile and also has a time-to-market advantage. While U.S. carriers initially may rely on fiber, as they need more capacity, they’ll need to add more nodes on the network, and may choose microwave to address cost and time-to-market concerns, Zoufonoun said. ExploreAir systems support bands from 2 GHz to 40 GHz in an all outdoor configuration, enabling speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps with a single carrier in a single channel. The platform also can scale without the need for an additional router, has field replaceable duplexers so operators need fewer spares and has a built-in spectrum analyzer.
Mu Dynamics’ testing tool
Mu Dynamics’ CEO Dave Kresse foresees the same problem as Zoufonoun in that operators are not going to know how their networks are going to react to the coming explosion of data traffic. The predicted onslaught of video traffic, as well as more cloud-based applications and enterprise uses like smart-grid systems are going to impact the network. The problem is no one really knows how or when, Kresse said, so it is difficult to replicate traffic on the network in tests and how the traffic will impact the network.
Mu is trying to carve out a space in services testing, somewhere between traditional network testing and applications testing to see how the network will perform when 1 million people start tweeting from their smart phones, for example. “A whole new class of services are emerging that span applications and infrastructure,” Kresse said. “With all that power and flexibility comes complexity.”
Further, as operators begin to open up their network to more applications, they are not going to know where the bottlenecks are occurring. Operators will have to find the bottlenecks and address them in real time. Mu’s Studio Scale testing solution transforms service interactions into parameter-based transactions.
Mu tests using service interactions with a Active Service Replication technology that transforms the actual service interactions into parameterized test scenarios so that the network is aware of the application. “With this approach, customers can automatically generate tailor-made test cases replicating the actual mobile application, service and underlying network infrastructure,” Mu said.