InfiNet Wireless TECHNOLOGIES IN ACTION

InfiNet Wireless
TECHNOLOGIES IN ACTION
Metronet UK deploys Infinet Wireless
Broadband Access solutions across
the UK's first profitable broadband
wireless carrier network
Introduction
Objectives
To offer customers a viable alternative to
?
traditional leased line services using broadband
last-mile wireless technologies;
To offer customers a contractual Service Level
?
Agreement (SLA) guaranteeing service levels of
99.95% with 4-hours break/fix reliability across
last-mile wireless connections and core MPLS
fibre-optic network backbone ;
To be able to support a complete range of
?
advanced services to end users across wireless
technology, covering basic connectivity to more
advanced services such as VoIP, IP CCTV
Surveillance, Business Continuity services and
advanced data services including Premium WAN,
MPLS IP VPN, Managed Security, Colocation and
QinQ ;
To offer “fixed menu-price” managed services of
?
up to 200 Mbps across wireless last-mile
connections, with each installation rated at a
maximum 50% throughput on install (i.e. for a
200Mbps contracted connection, a 400Mbps link
is installed).
To be the industry best in customer support. This
?
means all support is performed in-house, with no
reliance on 3rd-parties to provide support. This,
in turn, translates as a direct requirement to any
vendor providing equipment or services directly
to Metronet.
?
Challenges
Achieving 99.95% reliability with 4-hour break-fix
?
guaranteed across the whole network, including
last-mile wireless links, is a difficult proposition
and must be carefully managed;
Ensuring vendor support from global suppliers in
?
order to reach the above targets for customer
SLAs, and in particular from wireless equipment,
which has the highest risk factor for reliability
given the location, climate and external influence
factors;
Offering high-value services across an SLA-driven
?
wireless infrastructure, including bandwidth and
latency-sensitive services such as Voice/VoIP,
Video & CCTV (at a minimum of DVD-quality of
25 frames per second), Enterprise database
access services and data-centre/business
resilience services.
Solution
InfiMan and InfiMan 2x2 Point-to-Multipoint
?
products
Customer Premise: R5000-Mm and R5000-Sm
?
integrated antenna products provide point-topoint and point-to-multipoint access to
customers requiring warranted throughputs of
30Mbps, 50Mbps and 80Mbps;
Core backhaul: R5000-Om and R5000-Mme
?
backhaul products with throughputs of 80 and
300 Mbps respectively.
With a population of over 2.5 million, Greater Manchester encompasses one of
the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom, is the largest regional
economy in the U.K. outside of London & the South East, and lies adjacent to
two similar size metropolitan areas, West Yorkshire and Merseyside. In total, the
three areas cover a population of over 6 million inhabitants (10% of the U.K.
population) and have been the focus areas of strong economic and business
regeneration over recent years.
Metronet was founded in late 2003 in the Greater Manchester area of the U.K.
with the aim of providing an independent and cost-effective alternative to
business ADSL, SDSL and wire-based leased line (private circuit) services, with
the goal of offering services to businesses that represented superb value for
money without compromising quality of service. The company lays claim to a
number of milestones including the first to support wireless IP CCTV video
streaming and the installation of the UK's first Gigabit wireless connection and is
the first wireless communications operator to achieve profitability in its first city –
Manchester.
The Metronet network is a pure IP-based last-mile wireless broadband network
providing wireless internet connectivity for Customers anywhere within its areas
of coverage. Metronet private circuits are provisioned using a local loop delivered
via carrier grade radio links that are, as a result, the last mile alternative to a
circuit from BT or any other traditional provider in the region. As well as targeting
corporate data clients, Metronet engages with local Police and Council Authorities
to promote use of its network infrastructure to support wireless CCTV video and
ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) camera systems.
Customer site service is enabled by the installation of a small radio attached to
the exterior of the building from which a cable runs using industry standard Cat5
cabling to the IT/Comms room. Because each customer connected to the
network has a dedicated switched 10/100 Mbps port, the Metronet Network
Operations Centre is able to monitor the private circuit 24/7/365, and one of
Metronet's key selling points is its unique SLA contractual guarantee of 99.95%
uptime with a 4 hour break/fix to any customer across its network. This can only
be achieved with careful in-house management and support of the network –
none of the support is outsourced, thus keeping control of the network “tight” –
and vendor equipment is stringently required to exceed the reliability and uptime
requirements of the SLA. Each private circuit is always provisioned at a minimum
of 50% “purchased” capacity, allowing Metronet to easily increase customer
bandwidth and throughput as the requirement for bandwidth increases, and
bandwidth or provisioning changes can be effected immediately through the use
of a simple software interface system via the network control centre.
More recently, and due to the success of the operation, Metronet's network reach
has extended beyond the Greater Manchester Metropolitan area and outlying
boroughs. January 2007 marked the launch of Metronet services in Liverpool,
2008 saw coverage in Leeds and today coverage has been extended to
Birmingham and Dublin.
www.infinetwireless.com
TECHNOLOGIES IN ACTION
Challenges in implementing the Wireless
Solution
There are naturally a number of key challenges in offering a last-mile wireless
network offering to support a broad-ranging enterprise and public service
customer base. Firstly, there is the implementation of the wireless technology
itself, and the difficulties the implementation of such a technology brings with
additional factors thrown into the equation: climate/weather conditions,
geography and siting of the wireless technology are but a few of the variables
that can affect the reliability of a wireless network: and with this in mind
Metronet were keen to make reliability and customer service their number one
priority in the deployment of the network. Metronet's customers are offered a
contractual SLA of 99.95% as a minimum – which is a tough target for a fixed
network let alone one based upon wireless infrastructure – and in order to ensure
this level of service, all of Metronet's support is performed in-house, on a
24x7x365 basis, with a guarantee of a 45 minute response and 4 hour maximum
break-to-fix period. This is the only way to ensure the overall reliability of the
network as a network entity. In addition, the reliability factor also needs to stretch
out to the network equipment suppliers: the wireless equipment needs to have
not only complementary uptime reliability to the stringent SLA agreement of
99.95%, but in addition it must be able to produce the required
bandwidth/throughput and service support across the life of its deployment,
including overcoming variances as a result of some quite varied and often
inclement climatic conditions in the region.
Secondly, there is the need for stringent security across the network, especially as
services are being offered to public sector bodies such as the police and law
enforcement agencies. Metronet uses highly secure IP radio connections through
proprietary radio transmission techniques to provide optimal quality of service and
make the connection inherently secure; techniques that include industrial
strength encryption, and frequency hopping around 80 different channels, with
random changes being performed every second. To complete the security
package, access to the network is controlled by IP and Air Mac addresses, and full
AES 128 & 256-bit encryption completes the security requirements.
Finally, and probably most importantly, is the commercial offer that Metronet
takes to market to attract and support its customer base. At the lowest common
denominator, Metronet offers fixed price and fixed-menu bandwidth services, with
the additional option of ADSL backup for “peace of mind” purposes to customers,
and these bandwidth services are offered on a very scalable and affordable sliding
scale – from 1MB to 200Mb and beyond – with each circuit over-provisioned by
double the ordered bandwidth in order to guarantee committed bandwidth levels
and allow customers to increase their requirements rapidly.
However, service requirements do not end purely with bandwidth allocation and
support: the network needs to be able to cope with varying profiles and types of
traffic including complex traffic types such as IP Voice (VoIP) traffic, video
conferencing, high-bandwidth corporate database synchronization & utilisation,
remote data centre services, public security applications and IP and CCTV
surveillance, where low-latency wireless networks that are capable of supporting
PTZ-controlled surveillance systems (joystick response controlled) are an
important factor.
Implementation of in-carriage & carriage-to-carriage network. The feasibility
study effectively proved that a broadband wireless link amongthe stations could
achieve a bandwidth of at least 10 mbps, more than enough for carrying the
current video surveillance information and planned upgrades.
www.infinetwireless.com
TECHNOLOGIES IN ACTION
InfiNet Wireless and MetroNet in partnership
Through its local UK partner 802 Networks, Infinet Wireless provides Metronet
with its InfiMan and InfiMan 2x2 Point-to Multipoint solutions, which are deployed
across the Metronet network to support customers requiring high bandwidth
requirements in excess of 30 Mbps, or where difficult non-line-of-sight or
obscured pathways may cause an obstacle to any wireless service. The R5000Mm and R5000-Sm integrated antenna products are used to provide point-tomultipoint access to customers who typically require warranted throughputs of
30Mbps up to 80Mbps, whilst the R5000-Om and R5000-Mme products are used
for wireless and core-network backhaul with throughputs between 80 and 300
Mbps respectively. The InfiNet Wireless 2x2 series of products were the first in
the world to introduce MIMO technology for Broadband Wireless Access, and set
new standards across the industry for throughput, spectrum optimisation &
efficiency and system reliability.
James McCall, Operations Director for Metronet UK, is impressed with the
performance and reliability of the Infinet Wireless equipment deployed within the
network. “Metronet utilizes InfiNet's InfiMan series of products for customers and
locations where bandwidth requirements are more demanding, and where
reliability is of paramount importance in particularly difficult environments. During
the last 12 months that we have been deploying Infinet's broadband wireless
products, what really stands out is the reliability of the units in the field and the
support we receive from InfiNet Wireless as a vendor, particularly with their
expertise in optimising wireless infrastructures in varying environmental
conditions. This is particularly important as Metronet is committed to guaranteed
uptime and throughput SLAs, and in order to achieve these SLAs, it is the
reliability of the wireless infrastructure – and especially the Customer Premise
units – that is paramount”.
Metronet also utilises InfiMan 2x2 equipment on public IP Surveillance networks,
for high-bandwidth and low-latency applications (for example for Voice-over-IP,
Call Centres, Video Conferencing and commercial database applications) as well
as for police communications networks, where security also becomes an
important factor alongside reliability.
www.infinetwireless.com
TECHNOLOGIES IN ACTION
Summary
Metronet's model is clearly both a commercial and technical success in the
market: not only is it consistently experiencing rapid year-on-year growth in
excess of 50% per year, it is also now expanding into adjacent territories and
cities in the West Midlands, North of England and in Dublin, Ireland. With more
than 75% of the UK's Gigabit wireless links registered to Metronet, the Company
has unmatched expertise in a technology that allows it to develop ultra highspeed Metropolitan networks at a fraction of the cost of cabled network
alternatives.
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