- Air Wireless’ product aims to provide operators DOCSIS 3.1 capabilities over a wireless connection
- However, it’s not a fiber replacement – it can’t give customers fiber-to-the-home speeds
- Convergence of DOCSIS and radio access networks is “inevitable” and beneficial for operators, said analyst Jeff Heynen
With the “fiber wars” underway, cable’s got some catching up to do to ensure it’s not left in the dust with network deployments. Air Wireless, a newly formed company made up of former Comcast, Liberty Global and Vodafone execs, claims it has the solution with its proprietary wireless DOCSIS platform.
The technology is “more or less” like fixed wireless access, said Air Wireless CRO Alex Salamon, as it uses radio frequencies to send internet signals. Essentially, it’s an extension of DOCSIS 3.1 that “happens to be over wireless.”
How it works
“We’re using fixed wireless technology from a point to multipoint to deliver that service to hundreds of customers from a single base station,” Salamon said.
Air Wireless can support the 10 GHz band with a distance of up to 22 miles as well as the E-band, which has a higher range of 71 GHz – 81 GHz but goes only up to 8 miles. The company’s base stations are integrated with remote-PHY and remote MAC-PHY devices.
If a multiple system operator (MSO) installs Air Wireless base stations in a region that’s on the edge or outside their existing footprint, then all the homes within a radius of around 20 miles can be connected to the operator’s network, said Air Wireless President Naveen Kadiyala. The exact coverage area “depends on the frequency used for transmission and line of sight.” The operator would then install a transceiver (much like one used for FWA) for consumers and businesses in that area.
Although Air Wireless can provide 5 Gbps throughput per base station and 1.5 Gbps throughput per transceiver, “no RF solution will be equal to physical fiber connectivity,” Kadiyala noted.
“We are not saying we are a fiber replacement,” he said. The technology can’t “get you the fiber speeds the customer gets” when installing fiber directly into the home.
Opening the door to new markets
With all the federal broadband funding going around, i.e., BEAD, RDOF, it’ll be “critical” for cable operators to get to market quickly, said Dell’Oro Group analyst Jeff Heynen.
Fixed wireless is one avenue cable cos are looking into. Cox, for instance, recently began a field pilot with Tarana gear to explore new market opportunities.
Wireless DOCSIS tech opens the door for cable companies to expand their footprints much faster than if they were to deploy fiber to a new node location or multi-dwelling unit (MDU), Heynen told Fierce.
“Those wireless point-to-multipoint links can ultimately serve as the primary connection for nodes and end customers back to the headend or it can be a placeholder until fiber is run out to those nodes or endpoints,” he explained.
“Or it can continue to serve as a backup link in the case of a fiber cut” if an operator’s already got fiber in its network.
One benefit of Air Wireless over a standard FWA product, according to Salamon, is “easy integration” for operators’ OSS/BSS systems.
Once the network is connected to Air Wireless, the DOCSIS 3.1 provisioning tools in the operator’s inventory “work exactly on their [side of the network],” Kadiyala explained. So, the operator doesn’t need to do any additional training for its support teams.
Convergence is ‘inevitable’
It’s the flavor du jour among telecom operators, as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon have all talked up convergence of fixed and mobile technologies.
In Heynen’s view, the convergence of DOCSIS and radio access networks “is inevitable and beneficial for operators.” Because spectrum is spectrum, whether it’s delivered wirelessly or over wires.
“There are a lot of parallels now between how spectrum is delivered in DOCSIS and RAN networks, especially when it comes to modulation (QAM and OFDM) and the architecture (Remote Radio Units for RAN and Remote PHY for DOCSIS),” he explained.
It’s too early to say whether Air Wireless’ technology “will be a big hit or not” as it’s brand new and unknown to the marketplace, wireless analyst Jeff Kagan told Fierce. “But based on what I hear, I like the potential,” he said, noting both cable and wireless companies need this kind of technology to hang onto customers and reward investors.
“Air Wireless has a big job both promoting themselves as a new answer to an existing problem, and also educating the marketplace on this new industry segment,” Kagan added.
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