User's Manual Part 1

A Little Terminology Chapter 1
RADWIN 2000 User Manual Release 2.5.40 1-16
A Little Terminology
In the field, a link typically has a local or headquarters site as for example in Figure 1-1
above. Here the service provider is the local or headquarters site. The service recipient is the
remote site.
Where the link is completely internal to a corporation, the choice of the local and remote is
just a matter of convenience.
A
link then, consists of two sites .
In Broadband Wireless terminology, the local and remote sites are sometimes referred to as
“near” and “far”, “HQ” and “remote” and so on.
The site which is closer to the network core (often the local site) will be referred to as
site A ,
and the opposite side of the link, usually closer to the end user, as
site B .
This choice is application-neutral and will be used throughout the manual both to describe the
sites and their names as in the examples.
The link is configured and managed using a PC, the
managing computer connected to site
A. (The precise requirements for the managing computer are set out on page 4-1).
We will occasionally need to distinguish between the site to which the managing computer is
connected, and the second site, when they are not necessarily A or B. The former will be
called the
managing site and the latter, the over-the-air site . Which is which, is always
determined by the location of the managing computer.
RADWIN 2000 supports three connection methods for the managing computer:
•
Local - a direct peer to peer connection between the Ethernet ports on the managing
computer and the IDU or PoE device. Local connection is always read-write.
•
Network - the managing computer and the site A IDU or PoE device belong to a LAN
and communicate through a router or switch
•
Over-the-air - the managing computer connects to site B via the air interface
• The managing computer may be connected to the link through an IDU or a PoE
device. In what follows, where ever we refer to an IDU it includes PoE devices unless
stated otherwise. Typically, if we need to refer to an IDU as such, we will use a model
name such as IDU-C.
The terms uplink and downlink, originate from the field of Satellite communications. In a
backhaul or ISP context, uplink is from the user to the network and downlink is from the
network to the user.