SCIENCE

BridgeWave Communications has announced that XO Communications, one of the nation’s largest communications service providers, has deployed BridgeWave’s FlexPort80 links to provide high-speed wireless network connectivity for customers not directly connected to the XO nationwide fiber network.

XO Communications offers advanced IP communications and high-performance network services for more than 90,000 customers, more than half of which are part of the Fortune 500. Faced with increased enterprise customer demand for gigabit network speeds from customers lacking direct fiber connectivity to the XO network, XO Communications needed a network infrastructure wireless transmission product providing high-capacity backhaul that simultaneously supported both legacy TDM voice traffic and increasing amounts of IP traffic. The challenge was to find a solution to quickly address customers’ accelerating bandwidth needs.

To meet these needs, XO Communications has deployed BridgeWave’s FlexPort80 because of the product’s ability to provide full-rate gigabit speeds, as well as its ability to effortlessly support both native TDM and IP traffic without the mandate for pseudowire or other third party devices. With the use of a single all-outdoor unit, XO Communications can combine their backhaul needs with their existing network resulting in an extremely cost effective and easy to manage solution.

FlexPort’s single all-outdoor solution eliminated the need for XO Communications to allocate or lease rack space inside cabinets or in buildings – an attractive and cost-effective solution when compared with lower capacity, split-mount microwave solutions. Alternative microwave solutions required two separate radios in order to provide less than full-rate gigabit connectivity.

“In addition to the right balance of product features and high performance, one of the biggest differentiators is BridgeWave’s impeccable customer support. The deployment was seamless and the service team worked with us to ensure success,” said Joe Vazquez, senior manager of wireless engineering at XO Communications. “We see BridgeWave as an integral part of our gigabit network solution set delivered using our nationwide wireless spectrum assets.”

BridgeWave’s FlexPort product family, once focused on the 80 GHz millimeter wave bands for short haul deployments, has recently expanded to the licensed 18 and 23 GHz microwave bands for medium range connectivity.

“Service providers look to economically enable network services for their customers without breaking the bank and just as importantly, require leading-edge solutions that provide capacity scaling of their backbone network,” said Amir Makleff, CEO of BridgeWave Communications. “Our FlexPort product family provides the flexibility that helps service providers and operators like XO Communications offer high capacity TDM and IP business services.”