7th December - Ericsson has added a number of new capabilities to its MINI-LINK TN microwave transmission family so that it now offers a complete, end-to-end transmission solution, optimized for the cost-effective rollout of mobile broadband.

Key among the new features is HSDPA aggregation, based on a new aggregation unit, which helps operators optimize the handling of packet-based mobile broadband traffic.

Sivert Bergman, Vice President and head of business unit Transmission and Transport said: "As mobile operators roll out mobile broadband services based on technologies like HSDPA, they know they will need additional transmission capacity, but they don't know precisely how much, when or where. The MINI-LINK TN family helps them get around this issue, and avoid 'over-committing' too soon."

Traffic aggregation is vital to the business case for mobile Broadband services based on HSDPA - which delivers up to 14Mbit/s throughput to users - as it reduces the loading on, and therefore the cost of, transmission links behind the access network.

In addition to aggregation, MINI-LINK TN also caters for increased capacity in mobile broadband networks by supporting double the previously available maximum PDH capacity and a new high-capacity, flexible interface towards radio base stations.

There is also a new access termination unit - a small, cost-effective edge node that offers both E1 and Ethernet connections. This enables mobile operators to increase capacity in their access networks to meet growing demand from 'traditional' mobile subscribers, and gives them the option to move to Ethernet when packet data traffic becomes more prevalent.

With the addition of these new features, the MINI-LINK TN solution now offers optimized nodes for each level of the mobile transmission network - from edge node, through aggregation sites to transport hubs - cost-effectively and with long-term scalability.

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