High speed, point-to-point, millimeter wave dated communication system

Abstract

A point-to-point, wireless, millimeter wave trunk line communications link at high data rates in excess of 1 Gbps and at ranges of several miles during normal weather conditions. This link is combined with an Ethernet network to provide high speed digital data communication among a large number of users. In a preferred embodiment a trunk line communication link operates within the 92 to 95 GHz portion of the millimeter spectrum. A first transceiver transmits at a first bandwidth and receives at a second bandwidth both within the above spectral range. A second transceiver transmits at the second bandwidth and receives at the first bandwidth. The transceivers are equipped with antennas providing beam divergence small enough to ensure efficient spatial and directional partitioning of the data channels so that an almost unlimited number of transceivers will be able to simultaneously use the same spectrum. Antennas and rigid support towers are described to maintain beam directional stability to less than one-half the half-power beam width. In a preferred embodiment the first and second spectral ranges are 92.3-93.2 GHz and 94.1-95.0 GHz and the half power beam width is about 0.36 degrees or less. In this preferred embodiment the Ethernet network is a Gigabit Ethernet providing data communication among switch banks at 1 gigabits per second and communication among a large number of users at 100 Mbps.