We are the leading wireless backhaul specialist company in terms of unit shipments
and global distribution of our business, providing innovative wireless backhaul
solutions to global wireless backhaul markets. We provide wireless backhaul
solutions that enable cellular operators and other wireless service providers
to deliver a diverse service portfolio over a 5G, 4G and 3G network infrastructure,
including: voice, mobile and fixed broadband, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Internet
of Things (IoT) devices, as well as public safety and other mission critical
services. We also provide our solutions for wireless backhaul to other vertical
markets such as Internet service providers, public safety, utilities and oil
and gas offshore drilling platforms. Our wireless backhaul solutions use microwave
and millimeter-wave radio technologies to transfer large amounts of telecommunication
traffic between wireless 5G, 4G, 3G and other cellular base station technologies
(distributed, or centralized with dispersed remote radio heads) and the core
of the service provider’s network. We are also a member of industry consortiums
of companies, which attempt to better define future technologies in ICT (Information
and Communication Technologies) markets, such as Open Networking Foundation
(ONF), Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), European Telecommunications Standards Institute
(ETSI) and others.
In addition to providing our solutions, we also offer our customers a comprehensive
set of turn-key services, including advanced network and radio planning, site
survey, solutions development, network rollout, maintenance, wireless backhaul
network audit and optimization, and training. Our services include powerful
project management tools that streamline deployments of complex wireless networks,
thereby reducing time and costs associated with network set-up and allowing
a faster time-to-revenue. Our experienced teams can deploy hundreds of wireless
backhaul links every week, and our rollout project track record includes hundreds
of thousands of links already installed and operational with a variety of industry-leading
operators.
Designed for Internet Protocol (IP) network configurations, including risk-free
migration from legacy to next-generation backhaul networks, our solutions provide
fiber-like connectivity at any distance, be it a few kilometers or 10s of kilometers,
and even longer, for next generation IP-based networks, for legacy circuit-switched,
or SONET/SDH, networks and for hybrid networks that combine IP and circuit-switching
technologies. Our solutions support all wireless access technologies, including
5G-NR NSA, LTE-Advanced-Pro, LTE-Advanced, LTE, HSPA, EV-DO, CDMA, W-CDMA, WiFi
and GSM. These solutions allow wireless service providers to cost-effectively
and seamlessly evolve their networks from circuit-switched and hybrid concepts
to all-IP packet-based concepts, thereby meeting the increasing demand of a
growing number of subscribers of any type be those consumers and enterprises
with growing needs for mobile and other multimedia services, and a growing number
of machines or IoT devices such as street surveillance devices or meters.
We also provide our solutions to other non-carrier vertical markets such as
oil and gas companies, public safety organizations, businesses and public institutions,
broadcasters, energy utilities and others that operate their own private communications
networks. Our solutions are deployed by more than 460 service providers of all
sizes, as well as in hundreds of private networks, in more than 130 countries.
Deployed by operators worldwide, today’s wireless base stations handle
many different technologies such as smart phones, tablets, PCs, CPEs, and IoT
devices such as meters and wearables. Voice and data traffic generated by these
high-end devices are then gathered and transmitted via the backhaul transport
network to the radio frequency (RF), or wireless network. Wireless backhaul
offers network operators a cost-efficient alternative to wire-line (copper/fiber)
connectivity. Support for high capacities and very large numbers of devices,
means that all value-added services can be supported, while the high reliability
of wireless systems provide for lower maintenance costs. Because they require
no trenching, wireless links can also be set up much faster and at a fraction
of the cost of wire-line solutions. On the operator’s side, this translates
into an increase in operational efficiency and faster time-to-market, as well
as a shorter timetable to achieving new revenue streams.
The wireless backhaul market is divided into two main market segments. The first
is a market segment in which operators invest resources and efforts to select
the best wireless backhaul solution that will meet their wireless backhaul needs,
in terms of the ability to improve their business operational efficiency, services
reliability and their customers’ (subscribers’) quality of experience.
This market segment is referred to as best-of-breed. The other market segment
is characterized by operators that do not select the wireless backhaul solution,
since this decision is made by a network’s solution provider retained
by the operator. This network solution provider delivers an end-to-end solution
and the equipment required to operate the entire network, including the wireless
backhaul equipment. Operators in this segment of the market often view the wireless
backhaul solution as a “commodity,” which should deliver network
connectivity, without optimization of network and other resources, and a solution
which does not play a primary role within the end-to-end network rollout considerations.
This segment of the market is referred to as bundled-deals.
Ceragon serves the best-of-breed segment of the market and specializes in a
range of solutions, which we believe provide high value for our customers:
·
Shorthaul solutions, which typically provide a wireless link capacity of up
to 2 Gbps per link and are used to carry voice and data services over distances
of between several hundred feet to 10 miles. Short-haul links are deployed in
access applications (macro cells and small cells) wirelessly connecting the
individual base-stations and cellular towers to the core network. Short-haul
solutions are also used in a range of non-carrier “vertical” applications
such as state and local government, public safety, education and off-shore communication
for oil and gas platforms.
·
Long-haul solutions, which typically provide a capacity of up to 10 Gbps, are
used in the “highways” of the telecommunication backbone network.
These links are used to carry services at distances of 10 to 50 miles, and,
using the right planning, configuration and equipment, can also bridge distances
of 100 miles. Long-haul solutions are also used in a range of non-carrier “vertical”
applications such as broadcast, state and local government, public safety, utilities
and off-shore communication for oil and gas platforms.
Ceragon has, on more than one occasion, been the first to introduce new products
and features to the market, including the first solution for wireless transmission
of 155 Mbps at 38 GHz, the first native IP wireless transmission offering. More
recently, we introduced a variety of technological enhancements including the
first hitless/errorless 8-step Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM) technology
(2007); first native Ethernet multi-channel long-haul radio with ACM (2010);
unique asymmetric transfer mode and multi-layer compression (2011); and 1024QAM
Long-Haul IP radio with 9 step ACM (2012); the industry’s first multicore
radio solution supporting 2048 QAM, 4x4 LoS MIMO (2012), the industry’s
first and only “Advanced Frequency Reuse” technology (2015), as
well as first and only Advanced Space Diversity technology (2017). These last
three technologies mentioned, are based on the Company’s multicore technology
and allow operators to flexibly deploy the wireless base stations and other
sites exactly where those are needed and at lower site acquisition costs, without
being bound to wireless backhaul deployment limitations as a result of interferences
from various other links, which are often deployed in a dense carrier’s
network.