Ekinops, a leading supplier of next-generation optical network equipment, today introduced a fronthaul solution that addresses wireless service providers' urgent need to increase data capacity affordably and efficiently by taking fiber all the way to the base station.
Addresses Fronthaul and Backhaul Needs in a Single Chassis
The EKINOPS solution supports both passive and active architectures or mixed approaches, in which fronthaul and backhaul combine to enable unprecedented mobile RAN possibilities.
EKINOPS addresses the move to radio site densification, driven by data capacity needs, with its solution, as well as the need for several different radio frequencies being used at a given site, requiring more and more radio heads per site. The compact solution, with its low power requirements, is also designed to limit operational costs and to be installed quickly, improving mobile operators' time to market.
Ekinops' passive CWDM and DWDM approach operates on a 1RU passive chassis that can hold various elements such as multiplexers and optical add/drop multiplexers (OADMs), enabling a vast range of multiplexing schemes in single or dual fiber configurations.
The active DWDM approach focuses on Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) aggregation to allow the use of fewer fibers for greater efficiency in the optical portion of the network. This approach offers highly flexible multiplexing capability, with up to 10 aggregation and two line ports. This active solution is delivered through Ekinops’ C200HC-ETR chassis.
"RAN (Radio Access Network) evolution is driven by both technology and economics," said Francois Xavier Ollivier, CTO of Ekinops. "We are seeing the notion of fronthaul as complementary to legacy backhaul continue to evolve. We believe that gradually, fronthaul and backhaul will mix in order to optimize the mobile access network architecture."
Addressing radio sites of different capacities, the EKINOPS solution is industrial temperature range capable, from -40°C to 85°C. It supports a broad range of client interface and line interface protocols. In a mixed fronthaul-backhaul scenario, it can transport legacy Ethernet backhaul traffic from already deployed base stations with Ethernet aggregating muxponders and transport fronthaul CPRI traffic. It also has a number of supervisory and management options.
For mobile synchronization, the chassis' Sync-E port allows for carrying the frequency synchronization – required for 2G to 4G standards – in packet-based backhaul network. Advanced features also meet the synchronization requirements of other protocols.
About Ekinops
EKINOPS is a leading provider of open and fully interoperable Layer 1, 2 and 3 solutions to service providers around the world. Our programmable and highly scalable solutions enable the fast, flexible and cost-effective deployment of new services for both high-speed, high-capacity optical transport as well as virtualization-enabled managed enterprise services.
Our product portfolio consists of three highly complementary product and service sets: EKINOPS 360, OneAccess and Compose. EKINOPS 360 provides optical transport solutions for metro, regional and long-distance networks with WDM for high-capacity point-to-point, ring and optical mesh architectures, and OTN for improved bandwidth utilization and efficient multi-service aggregation.
OneAccess offers a wide choice of physical and virtualized deployment options for Layer 2 and Layer 3 access network functions.
Compose supports service providers in making their networks software-defined with a variety of software management tools and services, including the scalable SD-WAN Xpress. As service providers embrace SDN and NFV deployment models, EKINOPS enables future-proofed deployment today, enabling operators to seamlessly migrate to an open, virtualized delivery model at a time of their choosing.
A global organization, EKINOPS (EKI) - a public company traded on the Euronext Paris exchange - is headquartered in Lannion, France, and EKINOPS Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary, is incorporated in the USA.
Name : EKINOPS
ISIN Code : FR0011466069
Mnemonic code : EKI
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