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No. 1 in a series of technology briefs on the concept of fading/outages in microwave wireless backhaul solutions.
Figure 1. Cumulative multipath fading in this microwave hop of an hour per year might represent 1,000 or more individual outages of 1-2 second or less with little note taken of such events by subscribers. In contrast, other fading types and infrastructure or equipment failure scenarios if of 3-10sec or longer in duration could result in periods of link unavailability (traffic disconnects, downtime).
Error performance (RBER, short-term outage probability, short-term outage sec/yr, path reliability, etc.) in digital microwave links is predicted, and then measured or monitored, only during periods when the microwave link is acceptable for subscriber use, i.e. is available. It is the primary responsibility of network planners and transmission engineers to design robust wireless links that provide the highest possible availability.
AUGUST 2011
WHITE PAPER MICROWAVE PATH AVAILABILITY AND ERROR PERFORMANCE: WHATS THE DIFFERENCE?
Figure 2. The North American (Bell) and international (ITU) definition of unavailability (downtime) in a wireless hop and other transport media starts with a 10 CSES (continuous outage seconds). Traffic conditioning in a TDM trunk could however drop subscribers after only 2.5s (Bell standard).
Microwave link unavailability or downtime can result from any of the following examples: Predictable and therefore acceptable events: Rain outage in millimeterwave links of perhaps 5-15min each in duration (shown below) computed from the Crane or ITU-R P.530 rain models which yield similar but not identical results, equipment failure for an MTR mean time to restore period computed from its MTBF mean time between failures , low fade margin especially In non-diversity hops
Non-predictable events, but mitigated by optimal link design: Robust infrastructure (towers, appurtenances, primary power), equipment redundancy, protected antenna feeder systems, ring (route diversity) protection, adequate battery life with generator or solar backup. Rare and perhaps unavoidable events: Cataclysmic geoclimatic incident (flood, fire, earthquake, tornado, hurricane), vandalism, terrorism, human intervention error, interference,
AUGUST 2011
WHITE PAPER MICROWAVE PATH AVAILABILITY AND ERROR PERFORMANCE: WHATS THE DIFFERENCE?
Error performance and availability are therefore like oil and water they simply dont mix. It is therefore inappropriate to add the numbers of shortterm multipath fade outages that do not materially disturb traffic to long-term rain fade outage, Figure 3. Performance and availability time classifications and typical objectives for a digital wireless path
Error performance and link availability are therefore like oil and water they simply dont mix. It is therefore inappropriate to add the numbers of short-term multipath fade outages that do not materially disturb traffic to long-term rain fade outage, sec/yr, that triggers an unavailable period that drops traffic.
The calculation of predicted numbers of short-term multipath fade outages in wireless links over a worst month in ITU regions or for over a year in North American digital radio hops is best done with either the Arvids Vigants or ITU-R P.530-13 (or earlier) mathematical models that derive somewhat similar but not exactly identical results.
AUGUST 2011
WHITE PAPER MICROWAVE PATH AVAILABILITY AND ERROR PERFORMANCE: WHATS THE DIFFERENCE?
In several respects, rain outage is somewhat benign. If fade margins are kept high and paths are not stretched too much, even in less advantageous areas number of outages per year should not be large.
It seems that in some casesperhaps many casesa more relaxed attitude might be taken toward rain-induced outages than toward multipath outages or even equipment outages. In several respects, rain outage is somewhat benign in nature. If the fade margins are kept high and the paths are not stretched out too much, even in less advantageous areas the number of outages per year should not be very large and the length of individual rain outages on a hop should only rarely exceed five to perhaps 10 minutes.
CLEARING/CORRECTING OUTAGES
Short (less than 2-second duration per event) microwave outages, common in typical longer diversity or shorter non-diversity digital microwave hops with adequate fade margin, will not drop any telephone or data lines. Such outages quickly clear (self-healing) with all circuits remaining connected and little note taken of these transient events. Critical real-time, non-repeatable control or data blocks are usually sent over data circuits that have X.25, X.35, etc. error detection, which requests a resend of interrupted data from far-end buffers, and Ethernet/IP packets are typically re-sent via ARQ automatic retransmission of lost packets. Longer outages associated with low fade margins, rain, etc. disconnect all subscribers and may block access to the digital hop for at least 10 seconds after each long-term outage event. Such traffic disconnects are unacceptable to most users (Figure 2). These more vulnerable hops clearly require diversity or ring protection. For high reliability hops, (usually in long-haul systems with many hops in tandem), the per-hop objective may approach or exceed 99.9999 percent, allowing only 20-30 seconds per-hop outage per year. Short-haul systems, up to about 10 hops, often have a per-hop design objective of about 99.9995 percent for 160 SES/yr outage. Spur legs or short systems with 2-5 hops may be designed for something on the order of 99.999 percent per-hop path reliability equating to 320 SES (5.3 minutes) outages per year.
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Aviat, Aviat Networks and Aviat logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Aviat Networks, Inc. Aviat Networks, Inc. 2011. All Rights Reserved. Data subject to change without notice. _w_Availability&ErrorPerformance_11Aug11
AUGUST 2011