Point-to-Consecutive Point

Point-to-consecutive-point wireless deployments have been rather rare, but they are arguably
a better way to use millimeter microwave equipment than point-to-multipoint because they
generally allow the network operator to reach every potential customer in a given market.
Often referred to as wireless rings, point-to-point networks need not form a perfect circle but
can describe a zigzag pattern. As long as the signal path ultimately returns to its point of origin
and forms a closed loop, the network will qualify as logical ring. One now-defunct company,
Triton Networks, manufactured a complete wireless ring solution at 28GHz–31GHz and 38GHz
with SONET restoration and the wireless equivalent of a SONET add-drop multiplexer at every
node, but other manufacturers have not used this concept. Today the network operator wanting
to adopt such an architecture with WiMAX equipment would have to jury-rig a solution
using routers and would likely incur considerable expense in doing so. Optionally, that operator
could use non-WiMAX point-to-point microwave equipment designed to support rings.
Another option would be to design the system as large Ethernet LAN, but the problem there is
ensuring fairness since in an Ethernet the user closest to the switch enjoys a great advantage in
contending for bandwidth. Additionally, a considerable amount of equipment is available for a
network operator wanting to construct a fiber ring, but in the wireless realm a ring is almost an
aberration. The notion of a wireless ring still has merit, but today network operators wanting to
implement that architecture are on their own. Figure 4-4 shows a point-to-consecutive-point
deployment.