How Does The BigAir Network Work?
The BigAir network is a non-terrestrial network, which does not rely on Telstra for the provision of any of its services. Unlike most other carriers in Australia, the BigAir network bypasses all of the Telstra exchanges and legacy PSTN (copper) network with our "Fibre in the Sky" wireless connections.
- Each Basestation (transmission tower) is typically a tall or medium height building which has good line of sight over a region.
- Each Basestation comprises of:
- Redundant power systems
- Networking equipment
- Point to point (PTP) backhaul radios "feeding" the Basestation with internet connectivity.
- Point to multi-point (PTMP) radios (sector radios) which distribute the service to customers. Typically, a sector radio will service 60-80 degrees using directional antennas.
- Each client site typically contains a subscriber radio with a built-in antenna. This unit establishes the wireless connection with the respective sector radio on a nearby basestation. A sector radio can be thought of as the master whilst the client can be thought of as the slave. Each master can talk to many slaves at the same time.
The BigAir wireless broadband network will allow complete bypass of the copper networks, and eventually the mobile phone networks can also be bypassed using wireless data networks.