Infinera (NASDAQ:INFN) and EBlink say they will partner to serve the mobile fronthaul market. The collaboration will enable the companies to offer Infinera's optical transport systems and EBlink's wireless fronthaul technology to meet a variety of end-to-end fronthaul deployment challenges.
The companies say they have demonstrated the partnership's potential via a live field trial with Orange. The trial combined Infinera's TM-Series and EBlink's FrontLink line to provide mobile fronthaul capabilities for Orange's 4G network in western France. The combined optical and wireless infrastructure connected baseband units (BBU) and remote radio heads (RRH) from several of Orange's radio access network (RAN) vendors.
"Combining fiber and wireless is key to a successful mobile fronthaul implementation," said Philippe Chanclou at Orange Labs.
"Infinera and EBlink have shown the feasibility of integration of mobile fronthaul with Orange RAN vendors and have demonstrated end-to-end performance, and we are pleased with the trial results," added Sebastien Randazzo, project leader of fronthaul trials at Orange France.
The partners say that their collaboration provides operators with technological flexibility. Where an operator has fiber, the Infinera TM-Series can supply WDM-based capacity. Elsewhere, EBlink's wireless fronthaul technology can step in.
The TM-Series, which Infinera added to its portfolio when it acquired Transmode, features a range of options for fronthaul requirements. These include passive WDM for fiber relief, semi-passive WDM for added management capabilities, and active WDM options where additional networking capabilities are required. These last options include transponder and muxponder applications where operators wish to multiplex multiple Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) and Ethernet services onto the same wavelength.
For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer's Guide.
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