NEC provides Rostelecom with mobile backhaul network

NEC Corporation subsidiary NEC Neva is supplying Rostelecom with an outdoor, integrated, ultra-compact microwave communications system which supports 70-80GHz E-band communications.

The first of the 235 stations were installed in Siberia and North-West Russia in July 2013 and the network is now being expanded to the South of the country and within Siberia.

Russia’s largest fixed-line long-distance telephone carrier, Rostelecom is using NEC’siPasolink EX system to support its macro network in areas that are inhospitable to dug optical cable, such as Siberia, as well as for back-up use when Ethernet fails due to flooding, fire or other emergency situations. As the E-Band millimetre wave spectrum is unlicensed or lightly licensed in many countries, frequency acquisition costs are very low.

NEC’s solution supports 1Gbps transmissions due to its pioneering use of a 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) method, which delivers fast data rates with higher levels of spectral efficiency, and the narrow 250MHz bandwidth.

“NEC has been providing Rostelecom with microwave and transmission systems for over 30 years,” said Akihiro Sakurai, Managing Director of NEC Neva Communications Systems. “Over this period, many projects have been implemented, including the construction of the 7,560km (4,700 miles) Trans-Siberian-Line network in 1996 and this latest wireless microwave backhaul upgrade.”