04 Aug 2021 Siklu Terragraph
Siklu Terragraph, MultiHaul™ TG
The greatly anticipated Terragraph technology has finally arrived. Most vendors have now brought their products to market and resellers and ISPs have had a chance to try some of the offerings. 2021 is the year of Terragraph. And since Siklu was one of the first vendors to market, let’s dive into the Siklu offering and review the products next to the technology itself.
What is Terragraph?
First of all, what is Terragraph? Well, it’s a new standard. Terragraph is a wireless connectivity technology that is based on the IEEE 802.11ay standard. Developed by engineers at Facebook, Terragraph was created with the following in mind – to deliver cost-effective, reliable, fibre-like connectivity over a wireless mesh network.
Terragraph uses the 60GHz Millimetre wave spectrum (V-Band) and the IEEE 802.11ay standard to deliver secure, encrypted multi-gigabit capable networking to end users via the use of a self-healing reliable wireless mesh network.
60 GHz spectrum uses channel widths of 2160 MHz and modulation rates of up to 64QAM to provide data rates of up to 6 Gbps over the air. 60 GHz consists of four channels in the European region. It makes use of interference mitigation techniques such as polarization and golay codes, as well as narrow antenna beamwidths (from beamforming antennas) which are implemented throughout a wireless mesh network to enable frequency reuse.
A Terragraph network typically consists of one or multiple Distribution Nodes located at a Point-of-Presence – a POP DN. These DN’s can then be connected to multiple other DN’s to distribute the network across a given geographical area. At the edge of the mesh network, client nodes (CN’s) are located at the customer premises that connect into the wireless mesh network to provide gigabit connectivity.
Due to the large number of DN’s and CN’s in the Terragraph network, multiple routes are available for traffic to pass back to a POP DN – this brings in redundancy and reliability. If a DN drops out for example, the CN’s and other DN’s connected to the offline DN should always have another route back to a POP DN – the path of least cost is calculated using the OpenR and L2 SDN wireless mesh routing protocols.
It goes without saying that this technology is being driven by gigabit demand. 60GHz mesh topology delivers Gigabit connectivity easily with a cost-effective solution that is easy to scale. Terragraph (TG) is the hero example here. The Terragraph standard now brings a common approach to the 60GHz mesh market and as more vendors adopt the Terragraph protocol, interoperability across different vendor systems is now possible. We also expect to see higher adoption, impacting higher-volume manufacturing, and more access to these products across the board.
Terragraph, The Benefits in Summary
Mesh is good for a number of reasons.
Resilience
Mesh networks are the most resilient. Because the data in a mesh network has more than one path to reach a fibre Point of Presence (PoP), service availability in mesh networks can be up to 99.99% / 99.999% of “up” time – incredibly high. As David Sumi (VP of Marketing, Siklu) always reminds us, the most obvious example of the resilience of mesh, is the Internet.
Scaleable Connectivity
So you’ve built your network, but now you’re ready to expand and you want to add new customers. Well with a Terragraph mesh network and the Siklu technology, this is super easy. All you need to do is install either a node or terminal unit (TU) within line-of-site of any network element. With Siklu’s auto aligning feature and beam steering, mesh network units connect automatically. Simply plug n play! In fact, Siklu is building its product portfolio with the specific aim to be so simple, an aerial engineer can deploy.
Pay-as-you-grow
There is no heavy up-front infrastructure investment in a mesh network. Forget expensive towers and backhaul systems. With mesh you can extend the coverage of the network when market demand dictates expansion.
Siklu Terragraph TG Products
The Siklu products are built with the end-user in mind. For example, some of the units are almost as small and as compact as a mobile phone, meaning that in a residential setting, they are less visually intrusive than many of the alternatives. This is ultimately what will drive end-user demand. Let’s have a look at the options.
Siklu MultiHaul™ TG N366
The MultiHaul TG N366 is Siklu’s brand new 802.11ay Terragraph certified base station. It offers 360-degree coverage via the use of 4 x 90-degree sectors with beamforming, and each sector can support up to 15 connections from other N366 devices, or Siklu’s range of MH TG terminal units. The 4 x 90-degree sector antennas use beamforming to create a narrow “PTP like” antenna beam to connect to DN and CN nodes to minimise interference from outside sources.
Supported topologies for the MH TG N366 include PTP (N366 to N366), PTMP (N366 to T265/T280) and Mesh (N366 to N366 AND T265/T280).
In Terragraph terms, the N366 acts as the Distribution Node (DN) and is designed to connect to Client Nodes (CN’s – T265/T280), and other DN’s (N366) to form a large scale, resilient, wireless mesh network.
The N366 supports up to 3.8 Gbps per sector, giving an overall throughput of up to 15.2 Gbps aggregated – true multi-gigabit connectivity to end customers.
Siklu MultiHaul™ TG T265
The MultiHaul TG T265 is Siklu’s brand new 802.11ay Terragraph certified terminal unit (or Client Node – CN). The T265 is designed to act primarily as a terminal unit that is deployed at a customer premises to connect to a Siklu N366 distribution node to provide multi-gigabit wireless connectivity. The T265 has an integrated 90-degree antenna that uses beamforming to create a narrow “PTP like” antenna beam to connect to an N366 DN node.
The TG 265 is designed for use as a short-range CN device providing connectivity to an N366 DN at up to 250 metres distance.
Siklu MultiHaul™ TG LR T280
The MultiHaul TG LR T280 is Siklu’s brand new 802.11ay Terragraph certified terminal unit (or Client Node – CN). The T280 is designed to act primarily as a terminal unit that is deployed at a customer premises to connect to a Siklu N366 distribution node to provide multi-gigabit wireless connectivity, but it can also be configured to operate in a point-to-point (PTP) topology with another LR T280 unit. The T280 has a high gain antenna, 36dBi, allowing for long range connectivity back to an N366 DN node or T280 CN node.
The TG LR T280 is designed for use as a CN in a longer-range mesh/PTMP deployment up to 400m, and as a PTP link up to 800m.
All of these products are supported by SmartHaul™ EMS, a powerful yet easy to use management platform, allowing customers to configure, monitor, troubleshoot and manage their mmWave networks.
In Summary
There is no question that we live in a Gigabit world from a demand perspective. Even prior to covid, end-user needs have been growing exponentially. The worldwide reaction to covid has meant that many of us are now working remotely, teaching is increasingly taking place online and the world has had to adapt in many ways. Technology can help and the change has certainly accelerated the need for Gigabit connectivity. The challenge has moved on from ‘what’, to ‘how’. How do we deliver? Today, advances in mmWave 60GHz technology and the introduction of Terragraph are for the first time ever showing how these systems solve the Gigabit connectivity problem.
For further information …
For more information, visit our Siklu Terragraph products page, or to find out how we can help you, contact the team directly on 01488 447 647, siklu@purdi.com
You might also like to check out the recent launch event, where we were joined by both Siklu and Facebook to discuss the evolution and development of this technology and an exciting, in-depth look at the products.
Also don’t forget we have a plethora of value-add services that help support you across every business function, including link planning and line of site surveys, so you can design and build your optimal network with Siklu Terragraph.
Article contribution by Harry Drewett, Wireless Solutions Engineer at Purdicom