The market for short-haul line-of-sight millimeterwave transmission links

GSM type telephone systems have become a global standard today. In such a digital network, mobile CELLULAR-TELEPHONEs communicate at 0.9 or 1.8 GHz within cell sizes of 1 to 20 km in diameter; groups of five to 20 of these cells have to be linked to a controller-station. This is the first valuable niche market, where millimeter radio fits in. Wireless CATV with projects like CellularVision, utilizing defined spectrum allocations at 28 and 42 GHz, respectively, are the basis for another upcoming market: VIDEO-ON-DEMAND, i.e. interactive television transmission and teleconferencing. This is the second valuable niche market, where millimeter radio fits in. The actual market situation-upcoming trends and development directions-with emphasis on Europe, will be reviewed in this paper.