1+1 Redundancy Configuration for Microwave Links

Microwave links are often used for telecom carrier back-haul and government applications. Given the mission critical nature of these links, the design goal is to maintain the link uptime to be as near to 100% as high as possible. In order to achieve such reliability, there are various redundancy method that have been implemented over the years.Particular attention has been paid to protect against problems with radio chain. Much of the radio equipment is located outdoors, often mounted directly to the back of the antenna. Outdoor Unit (ODU) failures could take a long time, even days to repair/replace, as time climbs are needed to access the gear. To prevent this situation, one needs to implement a back-up scheme to keep the link up and running during the time of repair.