RAD to Display at MWC 2011 a New Cost-Optimized Intelligent Mobile Demarcation Device

Creates Smart Backhaul Pipe with Powerful Traffic Management, Performance Monitoring and Timing Synchronization Capabilities

RAD Data Communications will unveil at Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona its feature-rich ETX-203A mobile demarcation device, part of its complete portfolio of intelligent demarcation solutions for HSPA and LTE backhaul.

“Smart demarcation is required in high capacity HSPA/LTE networks because dumb pipes can’t handle the growth of premium data mobile services efficiently,” says Ronen Guri, the company’s Business Development and Solution Manager for Mobile Backhaul Services.

Based on the company’s next generation Carrier Ethernet ASIC, the ETX-203A Mobile Demarcation Device (MDD) reduces the investment required for effective delivery of mobile broadband traffic by combining attractive pricing with sophisticated capabilities. These include hierarchical quality of service, hardware-based fault management and advanced SLA assurance tools, as well as robust clock recovery per IEEE 1588-TC standard.

“RAD enables mobile transport providers and wholesale carriers to harness Carrier Ethernet’s simplicity, lowest cost-per-bit economics and scalable architecture to ensure effective network throughput and increased return on investment (ROI) per spectrum outlay,” Guri notes. “But the value that we offer extends even further, with an in-house design of the ETX-203A’s ‘smarts engine’ that allowed us to optimize its cost without compromising the required functionality,” he continues. “As a result, we have managed to package a solution that dramatically lowers operator CapEx when adding the obligatory intelligence to HSPA+ and LTE backhaul networks.”

QoS Management and Clock Synchronization Gateway

The ETX-203A MDD is designed with the scheduling, shaping, policing, and queue management features required to ensure various aspects of 4G and LTE quality of service, including QoS Class Identifier (QCI), Allocation and Retention Priority (ARP), Maximum Bit Rate (MBR), Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR), and Aggregate Maximum Bit Rate (AMBR). Furthermore, it is engineered to support highly accurate clock transfer with standard 1588v2 transparent clock (TC) functionalities, cutting down provider costs by minimizing equipment needed for timing and demarcation. “Among Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) members, there’s a general agreement that 1588v2-TCs are critical for accurate time synchronization in packet network,” Guri explains. “RAD’s ETX MDDs are the first in the market to support such functionality.”

At the Mobile World Congress, RAD will also be exhibiting the ETX-204A Carrier Ethernet mobile demarcation device and the ACE-3220 cell-site gateway. Visitors to the RAD booth, moreover, will be able to have a sneak preview of the soon-to-be-released ETX-5300A 10 Gigabit Carrier Ethernet access aggregation platform.