Exalt rolls out 4.9 GHz backhaul system

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Donny Jackson

Wireless-backhaul solutions provider Exalt Communications announced the general availability of its high-capacity solution operating in the 4.9 GHz band used by public safety.

Amir Zoufonoun, founder and CEO of Exalt, said the company's 2.4 and 5 GHz solutions led to some customized 4.9 GHz solutions that then led to the formalized 4.9 GHz products that are generally available — the EX-i for indoor configurations and the EX-r for outdoor use.

“We had always thought about doing 4.9 GHz, but we didn't think we would do it this quickly — basically, that was driven by the market,” he said. “[Customers] said, ‘We want everything you've done in your 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz radio in 4.9 GHz.’”

Exalt's backhaul solutions are designed to provide flexibility to customers, as they can be configured for both native TDM and native IP traffic with 128- or 256-bit AES encryption and SNMP3 management. In addition, customers can decide how much bandwidth they need and alter the throughput — on a pay-as-you-go basis — via software configurations, Zoufonoun said.

“With this radio, what you can do from a TDM standpoint, you can go from 0 T1s to 4 T1s effectively — over time, you can turn them on and off as you wish,” he said. “On the Ethernet side, you can go up to 55 Mb/s in the same box, so that gives you a lot of headroom.”

As a result, Exalt's platform is ideal for customers looking to migrate from TDM to IP backhaul technologies in a seamless manner, Zoufonoun said.

“The fact that we have native TDM and native IP — as well as the lowest latency for TDM and IP — has been very attractive to people,” he said. “And the product is P25-ready.