User's Manual

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The ARCXtend MetroE Wireless Plant Extension Solution
The ARCXtend MetroE wireless plant extension solution creates a transparent wireless Ethernet
bridge between a cable operator’s fiber network and small and medium-sized business customers’
sites supporting delivery of high value Ethernet services without the delay and expense of a fiber
extension.
A MetroE solution consists of a pair of fully integrated outdoor radios, called nodes, which
together create a point-to- point wireless link that transparently bridges the fiber network and
customer LANs. The MetroE node can be strand; pole or mast mounted and powered using IEEE
802.3af standard Power over Ethernet (POE) or 60 or 90 VAC coaxial cable line-powering. It
includes a weatherized RJ-45 Fast Ethernet port for enabling direct, all outdoor connection to aerial
fiber plants via hardened media converters or for connecting to standard customer premise
equipment including switches, routers, firewalls and network interface devices. The two radios
together form a low latency (less than 2 milliseconds one way), high availability point to point
wireless link operating in the license-free 5 GHz band with a sustained point-to-point throughput of
up to 32 mbps at a range of up to 3 miles and up to 99.999% link availability.
The major elements of the MetroE solution:
Wireless Interface
The MetroE utilizes a 20 MHz wireless channel located anywhere in the license free spectrum 5725
to 5850 MHz ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) unlicensed band. With so much wireless
spectrum and only a single wireless channel, interference-free operation is virtually assured. The
FX5010 utilizes orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), forward error correction, and
adaptive modulation technology to support operation of up to 54Mbps raw data rates with near
line-of-site coverage. Near line-of-site coverage capability ensures optimal link performance in real
world deployment conditions.