Consecutive point architecture for broadband wireless access networks

For wireless broadband systems to succeed as a major communication solution in the 21/sup st/ century, they must be the primary communication solution in the bandwidth range of 10-100 Mb/s. This bandwidth range is not effectively served by copper or fiber optic networks. Key technical characteristics of a primary communication network are that it be reliable, maintainable, readily accessible, easy to deploy, cost effective, etc. This paper describes a reliable, maintainable, spectrally efficient wireless network architecture called the "consecutive point" architecture. A consecutive point network consists of a series of consecutive SONET or Ethernet radio hops typically arranged to form a ring. This paper describes the consecutive point wireless network architecture and its advantages which include self-healing, dense deployment, spectral efficiency, single POP manageability, in-service topology changes, and in-service software upgrades. Data from field trials and analysis are provided to support the consecutive point design.