City of Jerusalem Building One of the World's Largest Municipal Networks Using "Gigabit Wireless Access" Equipment from Siklu

Millimeter wave system to provide Smart City and public Wi-Fi services and support educational institutions 

SAN JOSE, California and BARCELONA, Spain, Nov. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Siklu, a global leader in Fixed 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) technology for Gigabit Wireless Access, Smart City and security networks today announced at the Smart City Expo in Barcelona that its millimeter wave (mmWave) core and access network equipment have been deployed in an ongoing project for the city of Jerusalem, which will become one of the largest municipal networks in the world.    

Adopting a cost effective multi-service approach, Jerusalem's new wireless broadband infrastructure, known as a "Gigabit wireless access" (GWA) network, will provide high-speed Internet service in public spaces and municipal buildings and to educational institutions, of which 30 have been connected to date. The network will also connect thousands of security, traffic control and parking management cameras at speeds ranging from hundreds of megabits to 10 Gigabits (10Gbps).

As in other cities around the world, GWA is needed to bring smart city services everywhere in Jerusalem, as fiber optic deployment throughout the city is very limited. A GWA network is a more expedient solution as the addition of new fiber optic lines would involve lengthy and expensive trenching work, vehicular traffic disruption and an overall nuisance for local residents.

"Jerusalem is an ancient city filled with historic sites and careful planning is required to avoid harm to antiquities," said Eitan Barzilai, the Municipality Head of Technological Development. "Therefore, we looked at a wireless network to speed up the process. In addition, our proof of concept studies showed that a private mmWave based system would offer us more available bandwidth at a lower overall cost, as compared to leasing high-speed lines from a public network operator, for example."

Therefore, the city decided to build a unified wireless network that would leverage its building and "street furniture" assets to serve as inter-connection points above the ground. The GWA network operates in mmWave bands at 60GHz (V-Band) and 70/80GHZ (E-Band). These frequencies enable what is known in the industry as "wireless fiber," as they are uncongested, more readily accessible (e.g., as compared to 5GHz) and the available spectrum offers predictable net capacities as high a 10Gbps. 

The City selected SMBIT, the leading integrator in Israel for the design, construction, and operation of unified services smart city networks, to coordinate this project.

"Siklu's mmWave broadband product line is the only solution in the market that has been developed to support the challenges of smart city networks and which complied with the stringent requirements in the project tender," said Yoav Ludmer, CEO of SMBIT. "Siklu equipment ensures a long-term solution, both in terms of quality and bandwidth, and it complements perfectly the city's existing fiber infrastructure."

The GWA current network consists of hundreds of connections in two layers: a core redundant ring offering speeds of 5-10 Gbps with inter-hop ranges of up to 10km, and a street-level access layer ranging from hundreds of Mbps to 2Gbps. The network currently operates via point-to-point connections and will expand soon with a point-to-multipoint configuration after the 60GHz band is opened for use by the Israel Ministry of Communications. 

"We thank Mr. Barzilai and SMBIT for the confidence they placed in us to realize this important project. Today more than 200 municipalities around the world use Siklu equipment to plan and operate their own GWA networks for a variety of smart city services and to improve broadband to educational institutions as well," said Ronen Ben-Hamou, Siklu CEO. "And our Facebook Terragraph announcement last week also illustrates how our progress in 60GHz systems will afford more options for municipal networks."

Siklu's solutions will be showcased at Smart City Expo Barcelona 2019, November 19-21, booth #B215.

About Siklu

Siklu delivers multi-gigabit wireless fiber connectivity in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Operating in the mmWave bands, Siklu's wireless solutions are used by leading service providers and system integrators to provide 5G Gigabit Wireless Access services. In addition, Siklu solutions are ideal for Smart City projects requiring extra capacity such as video security, WiFi backhaul, and municipal network connectivity all over one network. Thousands of Siklu carrier-grade systems are delivering interference-free performance worldwide. Easily installed on street-fixtures or rooftops, these radios have been proven to be the ideal solution for networks requiring fast and simple deployment of secure, wireless fiber. www.siklu.com.

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