For many mobile carriers, especially those with heavy investments in the TDM based technology space, it makes a lot of sense to maintain their existing E1/T1 backhaul interfaces. With an increasing number of IP based backhaul providers driving down costs it makes sense to consider using these lower cost alternatives for backhaul.

The latest radio equipment technologies are now often equipped with IP interfaces to allow for use of IP as backhaul but older legacy equipment does not. Often where IP interconnectivity is available no thought has been given to the clocking required for accurate TDM circuit delivery or where a solution is available for the manufacturer it often requires complex work arounds eg GPS systems.

An affordable alternative solution is to use the Patapsco PacketBand gateway.  This provides the necessary multiple E1 or T1 connectivity at both ends and carries the circuits over an IP connection. This allows almost any dedicate IP connection to be used. Satellite, possibly for hard to reach cell locations, low cost IP based point to point radio or microwave, point to multi-point radio eg WiMAX or fixed terrestrial carrier IP networks.