Challenge: The city of Cleveland is one of the least connected in the US. DigitalC plans to fix this by offering symmetric 100 Mbps fixed wireless service to the entire city. This will be challenging as most links will be obstructed by trees and buildings, as well as subject to interference both on the tower and at the subscriber homes.
Solution: DigitalC is leveraging G1’s unparalleled non-line-of-sight performance and interference cancellation to deliver reliable multi-hundred megabit throughput, even in heavily obstructed areas or where there is high interference.
Results: High-speed links were tested and deployed in a variety of non-line-of-sight conditions at symmetric speeds of 100 Mbps or higher. These speeds enable Cleveland residents to stream video without buffering or long load times, play online games without lags, and work and study from home.
Speeds: From a maximum of 30 Mbps with legacy equipment to 100+ Mbps for G1 with most links capable of 400–600 Mbps, a 20x improvement.
Distance: The network is comprised of links that range, on average, between 1 and 3 miles.
Subscribers: With support for up to 1,000 subscribers per tower, DigitalC plans to cover the city completely with a total of 120 tower sites.
Radio Planning: K=1.
Fixed wireless access (FWA) is the fastest way to deploy broadband and next-generation FWA (ngFWA) does so at large scale, with high performance, and at lower cost than all other technologies. This is why DigitalC, a non-profit wireless internet service provider (WISP), turned to Tarana’s Gigabit 1 (G1) platform to deploy high-speed broadband in Cleveland, Ohio with a minimum of 100 Mbps/100 Mbps service, even in heavily obstructed locations.
Going Beyond Legacy FWA
When DigitalC reviewed what would be necessary to deploy high-speed broadband, they realized previous generations of FWA equipment would not be sufficient. Deploying across a locale like Cleveland would require excellent non-line-of-sight performance, high capacity, and great coverage at scale. “There were quite a few skeptics who told us Tarana wouldn’t be able to penetrate the many trees in this area,” said Jose Valdez, Chief Operating Office for DigitalC. “The technology performs very well through trees and is a game-changer as it will allow us to provide city-wide coverage of high-speed internet in Cleveland, one of the nation’s least connected cities.”
DigitalC initially deployed a 5 GHz pilot that included multiple links in Cleveland’s busy downtown area as well as, more crucially, residential neighborhoods. Finding clean RF spectrum for a wireless network in either location was impossible. Every frequency was already in use either from nearby towers or Wi-Fi operating in residential homes. In order to operate reliably, the radio equipment would need to manage heavy interference.
The Next Generation of FWA
G1’s innovative breakthroughs create an entirely new paradigm for building and growing fixed wireless access networks. G1 features field-proven technology such as interference and noise cancellation, fine grain Tx and Rx digital beamforming, distributed massive MIMO at both ends of the link, and perfect multipath integration for excellent non-line-of-sight (NLoS) and near-line-of-sight (nLoS) link performance as well as k=1 spectrum reuse.
A comparison of results from a number of challenging links is shown below. In each case, symmetric 100 Mbps service can be offered and, in many cases, more.
|
Link Distance |
Line of Sight |
Downlink Speed |
Uplink Speed |
|
1.18 miles |
NLoS |
235 Mbps |
121 Mbps |
|
.78 miles |
nLoS |
270 Mbps |
146 Mbps |
|
.55 miles |
NLoS |
213 Mbps |
105 Mbps |
|
.52 miles |
NLoS |
207 Mbps |
100 Mbps |
With planning and additional towers, a G1-powered network can offer speeds of up to 800 Mbps of aggregate capacity for subscribers, far exceeding the 100 Mbps minimum.
These kinds of speeds are changing people’s lives for the better.
Armed with this technology, DigitalC is planning to expand their network across the entire city and surrounding neighborhoods. “Our existing customers are seeing huge gains when they switch from legacy FWA equipment to Tarana,” said Valdez. Given ngFWA is easy to deploy, Valdez estimates deployment will be quick. “We’re planning for a total of 120 tower sites for complete coverage. We estimate we can cover Cleveland in just 18 months.”
Summary
Reliable, high-speed broadband has quickly become a must-have in a today’s digital society. DigitalC is committed to connecting the unconnected and has selected Tarana’s G1 next-generation fixed wireless access platform to do the job. With G1, DigitalC is deploying transformative, ngFWA to bring reliable, high-performance broadband to all.
Download a copy of the case study here.
About DigitalC
DigitalC is a nonprofit technology social enterprise headquartered at the MidTown Tech Hive in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. DigitalC connects communities to affordable high-speed internet through a fixed wireless network and empowers residents through technology training and social innovation. To learn more about its services, call 216-777-3859, email info@digitalc.org, visit digitalc.org, or follow them on social media @digitalc_org.
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