Motorola/Cambium PT 650

Products PTP
1

I am an engineer from South Africa and currently working on one of the project that has Motorola PTP 650 MW unlicensed band. There is no visibility of these radio on the NMS.

We are proposing an OSS as there is multi vendor MW links and other routers and switches.To procure NMS for each is not a feasible option. What i am looking at is to find if these MW links have

IP/MPLS routing capabilities: BEP1 or BEP2 features.

QOS

IGP routing protocol

Security features and network threat protection

NTP

1+1 link HSB and upgrade from 1+0 to 1+1

what capacity can it carry wrt QAM

If not all of these or any missing what can you suggest. I would like to propose a better MW link that caters fo all the above solutions.

2

Hi Ally,

I'll try and answer all the questions. If I miss something, please come back to us.

The PTP 650 series of Ethernet bridges for unlicensed bands was created and continues to be supported by Cambium Networks. PTP 650 was introduced after we became an independent company, and PTP 650 was never a Motorola product.

PTP 650 has been superseded by PTP 670. It you are purchasing additional links you should look at PTP 670.

A PTP 650 link operates as a transparent Ethernet bridge, meaning that Ethernet frames received at the wired port at one ODU are transmitted unchanged at the wired port on the remote ODU. PTP 650 does not provide any Layer 3 (IP or MPLS) routing capabilities. PTP 650 does not support IGP. I'm not familiar with BEP1 or BEP2; can you provide a reference? Of course, when we say that PTP 650 does not support routing, this does not prevent a wireless link from being used to provide Layer 2 transmission between routers in your network.

PTP 650 provides flexible QoS with eight transmission queues at the wireless port. Frames are classified into queues based on Layer 2 (Ethernet) priority, Layer 3 (IP/MPLS) priority, with spcial treatment for specific Layer 2 Control Protocols. Many more details are provided in the User Guide.

PTP 650 provides a comprehensive set of security features, including AES stream encryption on the wireless interface, HTTPS for web-based management, and SNMPv3. The same set of features are provided in PTP 700, which is approved under FIPS 140-2. Again, more details are in the User Guide, and in the Cambium Community. PTP 670 has some enhanced security features not provided in PTP 650.

PTP 650 supports time synchronization using SNTP.

Operators sometimes use PTP 650 links in a 2+0 arrangement where the two links are on separate frequencies and data traffic is distributed between the two links using an external switch. It would also be possible to operate two links in a 1+1 arrangement, but the time taken to acquire the backup link means that you should expect a downtime of about a minute on a protection switch. In some networks, that downtime would be considered excessive. Also, the logic for protection switching is not provided within the PTP 650 units.

The capacity depends on range, bandwidth, link optimization mode and modulation mode. You can calculate capacity using information in the User Guide, but a more straightforward approach is to model your link using Cambium's free LINKPlanner software.

I hope this helps!

Mark

3 Likes
3

Hi Mark,

Things are much more clearer now. Thankyou for your guidance. Your response does address most of the concerns like

QoS traffic management

SNMP for management

Ethernet qinq stacking

How ever a few concerns with MPLS-TE capabilities remains un answered with this PTP 650 as the product doesnt support this feature. We shall, as advised deploy routers to make unified mpls network and use MW as link carriers.

1+1 HSB is important for MTBF but if we have 2+0 operating at different frequencies will that resolve the problem of link protection ?

Are there any products with Cambium that we can deploy in order to have MPLS capabilities rather than looking into buying routers that would probably be a costly solution as we need a complete new hardware in order to put on MW L2 link. I was hoping to see if Cambium can provide with a quote for the one such link that supports mpls features.

I am also attaching a diagram. The yellow links shows the cambium which has been incorrectly written as Motorola PTP 650.

Thankyou for your assistance.

Br

Ally

4

Hi,

PTP 650/670 does not support routing based on the MPLS label value, but it does support configurable QoS based on the MPLS Traffic Class field in the outermost MPLS label. Does this help?

Mark

5

Hi Mark,

Hope you are well and enjoying your weekend. When you get back to work can you kindly propose MW that are 1+1 capable with MPLS features along with the rest that i have mentioned.

I am attaching a network model which is going to be on running on fiber in the long run but we need high capacity MW link specifically in the core that has capacities of upto 1Gbps if any under un-licensed band.

There is an existing 50 link approx, diagram attached that needs to be swapped. Can you kindly suggest the following

1) What best high capacity links you can suggest.

2) MPLS feature

3) 1+1 high speed switch over

4) SNTP or ieee1588 or NTP feature

Can you also guide a rough estimate on the costing for the each MW and can these be monitoried and managed via web portal management system. What is the cost of the management system

I have managed to convince the management that these needs to be swapped in order to have a unified mpls architecture.

Thankyou for your feedback and assistance.

BR

6

You have a lot of questions regarding the PTP6x0 series... I'd suggest that you call your local Cambium RSM/RTM (regional sales and technical manager) along with using the free Cambium LinkPlanner tool to get a more in-depth answer to your questions. Lastly, you could connect with a Cambium VAR (value added reseller) that can help you aquire and configure equipment based around your needs.

1 Like
7

Mark is the expert in this topic. We have another expert who is on vacation this week. If i can find answer from him, i will also let the team know.

Regards

Allen

Product Management for PTP portfolio

1 Like
8

Hi Ally,

As Eric Ozrelic points out, it is a very good idea to make contacy with the Cambium Regional Technical Manager (RTM) for your region. Wayne Wiblin will be able to help you plan a network using the most appropriate products.

Second, let's explore the MPLS aspect. I see that you have an extensive network with fiber links and several types of wireless links. It appears that links are typically about 10 km length. The network is not a simply-connected tree as there are multiple routes in some places. Rings and partial meshes can be used to improve availability and/or increase overall capacity, but they do require you to provide appropriate traffic engineering. It makes sense to use MPLS here.

If you have MPLS routers at the network nodes then PTP 650/670 links will interconnect those nodes by providing a transparent Ethernet point-to-point service similar to wired Ethernet or fiber. This Ethernet service will bridge MPLS frames over Ethernet. In addition, the PTP 650/670 links can provide configurable QoS in the wireless link based on the Traffic Class in the outermost MPLS label.

However, PTP 650/670 do not provide any MPLS routing features. In particular, they will not route traffic to a destination based on the label value, they will not push or pop labels, and they will not originate or terminate routing protocol messages. PTP 650/670 cannot be managed using MPLS traffic; all management traffic to the ODU must be IPv4 or IPv6 over Ethernet. You mention that you want an MPLS feature in the wireless links. I think you're going to have to be a bit more specific abpout how you want the links to support the MPLS network.

If you're looking for high-speed 1+1 switchover, you should probably be looking at our PTP 820 range of licensed band wireless links. Alternatively, consider using 2+0 with a pair of PTP 670 links in unlicensed band.

SNTP and NTP are normally used to synchronize time of day in the network equipment to within a second or so. This is valuable for comparing fault logs and general management duties. SNTP and NTP put no special demands on the network. IEEE 1588 is capable of much higher accuracy, and is used to synchronize processes within 1 us accuracy. For example, the frame timing in cellular base stations. To achieve sub-microsecond accuracy, every node in the network must support IEEE 1588, incuding routers, switches and transmission. This is big overhead if second accuracy would be enough. Can you tell us more about the synchronization needs?

PTP 650/670 can be managed using HTTP or HTTPS using the web server in the embedded management agent. We also plan to add PTP 650/670 to the cnMaestro management platform using the first half of 2018. cnMaestro is available free of charge at present.

Mark