It's easy to fall into the trap of believing that we're alone in having a certain problem, need or deficiency. You're not alone!
This summer we surveyed hundreds of broadband wireless professionals in an effort to understand some of the largest gaps and pain points in the industry.
The professionals surveyed included end users in the public safety, energy, utility, broadcast, telecom and cellular sectors. As well as an equal number of equipment resellers and distributors.
The end users received a different survey than the sales channel folks, but with several overlapping questions. The results below represent the percentage of people asked a particular question. The purpose was to identify the greatest common pain points and gaps across all industry professionals. Obviously, some items are not relevant to all respondents
Without further ado, here are the results!
The following observations and points reflect some additional details that were collected, but aren't necessarily represented above:
* Equipment resellers and distributors were the most responsive to the survey
* Wireless professionals generally want more freedom from their desks and traditional computing devices
* They also want to streamline and automate the design and deployment processes in the field
* Tools that are available today are too expensive or don't offer adequate value
* As simple and necessary as network monitoring is, it is often not implemented
* People in our industry are overwhelmed by the variety of wireless solutions available
* Formal training for broadband wireless is sparse
* Few sales professionals in this industry embrace customer relationship management (CRM) tools and automation techniques to help stay in touch with their customers
I wish we could create dialog with everyone that reads this post to see if these items resonate, and perhaps identify other gaps.
Castle Rock Microwave is working to solve many of these problems for ourselves and our customers. Some solutions we have are through partnerships and others through innovation and invention of our own. We want to help make your life easier!
Do these pain points and gaps resonate? I’d love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below.
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By Brett Bonomo
Quitting doesn’t come easily for me. In the past year or so I quit my job, quit some bad habits, quit being so grumpy, quit saying “no” to fun invitations from dear friends and quit being away from my family.
Truthfully, the most significant seemed to be quitting my job, but the rest were welcome results.
I was deeply passionate about my job, the company I worked for and the people that I worked alongside. As a key contributor within the organization, I believe I gave my best and had a positive impact there. It was the eight most significant years of my career in terms of personal and professional growth.
But, it was time to move on and pursue a lifelong desire to create and grow my own company.
The decision to quit, for most people, is really difficult. These are the questions that haunted me:
• How will I know when it’s finally time?
• How do I quit with dignity and respect?
• How do I plan it?
• How exactly will that conversation go?
Note - If you’ve had five jobs or more in the past five years, chances are that you struggle to take jobs well or quit jobs well. This should not be a vicious cycle. The good news - there's always time to make improvements.
Quitting should never be an emotional reaction
I gained clarity in deciding to resign from my job when I realized I could no longer affect change and I started to realize that I was likely going to become a problem rather than a problem solver. My ability to be a constructive participant and thought leader had diminished. This was deeply personal for me and a tough realization. Often there are ways to rise above situations like this and overcome whatever circumstances exist to continue to be productive. I was simply wore out. Believe me, there were times that emotionally I wanted to check out, but I refused to leave on a bad note.
You should avoid quitting in the middle of a major project (if you’re a key contributor) or at the end of an important sales milestone (month, quarter or year). This was wise counsel I was given and I’m glad I took it. If you’re a valuable part of an organization, there’s never a good time to quit. Be thoughtful about the best time relative to your position.
I had a lot of great, personal friends, really almost family, at this company. My boss at the time had only been there a short time, but I owed it to him and myself to follow the chain of command rather than calling all of my buddies first or going directly to the CEO and COO, who I knew very well. At least one dear friend was really upset that I didn’t come to them sooner, but I slept well knowing that I did the right thing. It’s hard to anticipate and manage all of the collateral damage. All you can do is hope that people will understand and not take your departure personally.
The conversation with your boss should be an honest one. It shouldn’t be highly emotional or a time to reflect on all of the factors that contributed to your decision. It is not the time to point out all of your supervisor’s or company’s faults. Just to be clear, I was quite satisfied with who I was working for just before I quit, which made the decision that much more difficult. You should concisely state that you have decided to resign. Give your employer plenty of time to plan and implement a transition. I believe it is appropriate to say where you have accepted your next job, if you have signed an offer.
The ultimate outcome of how well you quit will absolutely reflect your integrity and credibility. You do not want to be perceived as a guy that was working two jobs at the same time. Whenever possible, try to build a break in between your end date and new start date. This is important for a couple of reasons. First, a break to clear your head is hugely beneficial. Second, it lessens the likelihood that you spent the majority of your time hunting for a new job instead of working. I had planned for a four month sabbatical, of sorts, between the end of my most recent job and the start of my new company.
Finally, you always have to anticipate a counter offer, if you’re a valued contributor. I don’t believe in counter offers. If you’ve gotten this far in the quitting process you should be 100% committed to your decision. People that accept counter offers are seldom all-in. There are probably only a couple of reasons when and why one would accept a counter offer. An employee worth having and an employer worth working for will be reasonable about any inequity in your current arrangement, financially or otherwise. Don’t threaten to quit in order to get something you want.
These steps helped me wind down a successful eight-year employment. I am still in touch with the top leaders of the company and will continue to do business with them. It’s a process that took at least three months from the point I decided that my resignation was imminent to the day I handed in my PC.
Have you gone through this recently? If you'd be so brave, what would you have done differently in hindsight? Please, drop me a quick note in the comments section.
Last year we were performing a major microwave backhaul upgrade for a customer. We were working to cut over the last of several hops of high capacity (~1Gbps) radio links. This hop was the most critical in that it was the main path to half of their network, with no backup. The site we were at was the least accessible, the weather was bad and we didn’t believe we’d get back to it until the next spring season after this visit. I had three guys freezing on the tower and everyone was anxious to make the cut, button things up and get off the mountain. We were doing the work on a Tuesday, one of the most sensitive days of each week for this customer’s business data. To make things even more complicated, cellular coverage on the mountain was really poor, so communicating with the folks at the other end of the link was frustrating at best.
An outage for our customer of any noticeable length was out of the question. The pressure was palpable and coming from many directions. The customer’s employee in charge (EIC) was at the opposite end of the link with one of our guys awaiting our call and next steps.
We were within minutes of being ready to cut traffic over to the new link and the EIC indicated that we would have to delay the cutover as he was being pulled another direction. Given the circumstances we had on the mountain top I pushed hard, beyond my customer’s comfort level, and pressed the matter. He reluctantly gave me the green light to proceed and we made the cut. The transition to the new radios was without incident. Data was moving well, so the EIC went about his other business and left us to start to wrap things up at the sites.
In the process of finishing up I thought I’d make one more configuration change in the radios that would prepare us for the next step of the system upgrade a few days later, to take this 1+0 system to 2+0 (utilizing XPIC). The configuration parameter I was about to change would simplify the turn-up of the second set of radios on the same dish, at a later date. I felt like I knew the radios well enough to predict that the configuration change I was about to make would not have an impact on existing traffic. I was dead wrong.
Fifteen minutes after I made the last configuration change I received a call from a hot EIC. Half of their system had been down that long. It was not a good day for me.
I learned what I call some “life lessons” on the mountain that day. This is what we do differently now:
It pains me to even think about what happened that day, but on the flip side it caused us to institute structure that will help prevent an issue like this again. In this case, the customer was gracious and after a long conversation the next day our partnership grew stronger.
If you have it in you, let me know below if you’ve ever been in this spot.
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Selecting the right microwave radio manufacturer is difficult, even for a seasoned microwave professional. In this post I’ll share some questions you can ask radio manufacturers. Hopefully, you will have the confidence to navigate the competitive landscape and identify a solution that exceeds your expectations.
We recently conducted a customer survey where 30% were unsatisfied with or uncertain about their current microwave manufacturer. Another 20% asked us for assistance on the matter.
The equipment vendor landscape is growing. In addition, differentiating between them has become increasingly difficult. If you don’t have a trusted source to help you identify the best solution, you need one. At Castle Rock Microwave, our clients trust us to guide them through this process by performing a needs assessment. Once we understand today’s needs and future goals, we make it easy to navigate the many options. It’s easy for them to trust us because we are not a manufacturer. Because we represent multiple manufacturers, we offer guidance based on their needs and not solely on our own interests. If you don’t have a trusted expert to help guide you through this process, here are some questions you can ask your potential radio vendors.
To answer this question, you need to ask a couple more. Do your best to understand how the product is distributed. Is it through a sales channel or direct from the manufacturer? If through a channel, would you buy from a reseller or distributor? Besides distribution of the product, you need to understand availability of it. Is product generally available “off the shelf”? This can be hard to verify unless you trust the manufacturer representative or channel representative.
It’s important to realize most vendors are operating with “just in time” manufacturing. This is why most sales reps call you incessantly. They need to track their forecast on a regular basis. Product availability should also factor into your decision to stock spare equipment or buy advanced support contracts. If you or your customer don’t have the budget to maintain spare equipment, then working through a channel that can provide immediate turn-around is important. Many manufacturers have support contracts to accommodate next-day delivery of replacement equipment.
Ultimately, you need to understand how product availability could impact your day-to-day business. Don’t make assumptions here. You need to know if the manufacturer you select can get you equipment when you need it.
Take the time to understand availability of technical support. This service differs from free to only available under contract, depending on the vendor. Some support contracts only entitle you to support during normal business hours. Others offer 24/7/365 assistance.
In some cases support is non-existent. Some vendors rely entirely on their user community to provide support. This approach is clever and incredibly cost-effective for the manufacturer and customer. However, it’s only suitable for certain types of customers.
Similarly, consider how much you want to rely on your distributor or reseller for support. Ideally, the sales channel would be responsible for the majority of the stock and support would only be escalated to the manufacturer for the most critical issues.
Few manufacturers have stuck to their guns in this regard. I used to challenge prospective customers of mine to pick up the phone and attempt a phone call to the manufacturer support line. Better yet, stage a support issue and see for themselves what the experience is like. The same can be done by email. Even if you don’t go through the motions, any indication of responsiveness is helpful.
Your manufacturer, distributor, or reseller should explain the options available and costs associated. You should always ask for current customer references. It’s even better to do a little leg work and find an existing customer or two who will give you their honest feedback.
There are other intelligent questions you should ask about mean time between failure (MTBF) and mean time to repair (MTTR). However, we tend to find that even when provided, these numbers always look better on paper than in reality.
It often seems there are more similarities between manufacturers than differences. This happens less if your requirements include specific IP networking or TDM capabilities.
The playing field is fairly level for IP-only (bridging) radios. The exception here is a very narrow segment of the industry that optimizes radios for low latency. These products are primarily used by high frequency trading firms.
There are some differentiating themselves with features that enable scalability to impressive capacities, simplicity in sparing equipment, smaller form factors and less power consumption. There seems to be increasing requirements for IT-related features and security, which vary slightly by industry, but seem to be converging.
These are requirements that enable different degrees of access and control of the management interface and flexibility in handling Layer 2 functionality. There are many vendors today that tout impressive Layer 3 (routing) capabilities. If you need to include Layer 3 functionality, it’s really important to fully understand the capabilities and limitations.
In our experience, more radios are supporting advanced networking capabilities. However, many folks continue to perform their routing and complex network functions outside of the radio device. Beyond these specific needs, it’s important to understand specifications like transmit power, receiver sensitivity, capacity, latency and jitter, availability of adaptive coded modulation (ACM) and its impact, power consumption and power supply options.
Question the vendors’ specmanship. Are they providing values and quantities that are driven by the marketing department or the engineering group? Are the capacity values Layer 1 or Layer 2? What error rate is the stated receiver sensitivity? Is ACM hitless and errorless?
Finally, how is the system managed and monitored? Is there a web GUI to configure and manage the device? What about Telnet or command line? Is SNMP standard? Are there any additional costs to implement the radios into the existing monitoring system? The key here is understanding precisely what you need, where you’re willing to compromise, and how to work around any deficiencies. One absolute truth in selecting a manufacturer’s product is to know them well enough to anticipate and work around the weaknesses.
The broadband wireless space is highly competitive with a lot of employee churn. Over the last decade, the industry has been hit hard by eroding margins due to competitive pressure. Perhaps a general lack of discipline in the sales channel is to blame. This tends to negatively affect the manufacturers’ ability to afford large inventory positions. In addition, it can lead to inadequate resources for their support staff. Worst of all, it affects their ability to innovate.
The flip side of it is that the end users enjoy lower prices, at least for a little while. So, how does one determine the feasibility of a prospective radio manufacturer? Only a few of the manufacturers are publicly traded. It’s possible to determine their financial stability using online tools to review their performance over time, earnings reports, market capitalization, margins, and so on.
The privately held companies are more difficult to track and understand. One under-utilized tool is the FCC filings for licensed microwave radio spectrum. There are organizations out there that compile this information and sell it. This information provides a picture of which vendors are coordinating the most licensed microwave radios compared to other vendors. Not all of the coordinated systems are purchased and deployed. This fact creates some disparity in determining how much equipment is sold. However, it says something about popularity.
The only way to understand a privately held company’s financial position is to enter into a non-disclosure agreement. This requires an opportunity large enough for them to be willing to lift the veil. In this relatively narrow market you might not be able to count on a stellar financials like you can in other industry segments. In most cases you’re confirming the following: They are stable enough to outlive the expected life of your system, deliver the equipment you need when you need it, support you when you need help, and provide repairs when necessary.
We believe some of the smallest, privately held companies in the market are the healthiest from the standpoint of financial viability.
Price should never be your main or only consideration. Price should be a factor in overall value. Value should be determined by a combination of all the considerations proposed here. Aldo Gucci said it best, “The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory.” Of course, most purchasers are operating within a fixed budget. However, there are huge implications of simply buying the cheapest. There are few, if any, cases where the least expensive product offers the best value. The total cost should likely stretch your budget.
Start by testing these considerations against your vendors of choice. Next, break it down further to specific products. Don’t assume any given product within a manufacturer’s portfolio deserves the same score as another product family in their portfolio.
If you’re an end user of this type of product, you should rely heavily on good people to guide you through this. It isn’t worth your time to investigate and totally comprehend all of the nuances of this industry, unless you’re running or creating a business that completely relies on it.
Have you been through this process yourself? What is one thing would you have done differently? Please take just a second and tell me below. Don’t forget to click here for notification of new posts.
The impact of wind turbines on microwave radio paths is a bit of a mystery. It’s often misunderstood. In this blog post I’ll provide a couple planning tips and some useful reference material. My goal is helping you make good decisions about how to plan for a successful coexistence of microwave paths and wind turbines.
I planned many microwave paths near wind farms containing individual wind turbines. I also investigated performance issues caused by the these spinning behemoths near microwave paths. When it comes to planning microwave paths over rural, flat terrain, you need to consider the possibility that wind turbines could be present. In addition, you need to have a plan if they are in the vicinity of the proposed radio sites. I found that following the recommendations below made it a straightforward planning exercise.
The presence of wind farms is obvious if you’re familiar with an area or personally involved in surveying sites. However, so much preliminary work is done from a distance and often without intimate knowledge of the landscape. The USGS is an excellent resource to identify wind turbines and wind farms. They even provide a Google Earth .KMZ file which helps quickly identify any wind turbines that might obstruct the microwave path.
There are three main considerations to ensure a successful outcome when deploying microwave in the presence of wind turbines:
The impact of the first two criteria is generally manifested as reduced received signal level (RSL) from the designed plan. This generally degrades throughput performance and sometimes causes bit errors. The third item, reflections caused by the moving blades, will generally be manifested by increased bit errors and perhaps varying RSL. Don’t let the fact that the blades are seemingly non-conductive fool you. They likely contain trace amounts of copper to assist in lightning protection.
Over the past twenty years a fairly substantial amount of empirical data was collected to quantify the impact of wind turbines on analog wireless systems in the TV broadcast and radar bands. Comparatively less work has been done to collect similar data for digital transmissions in the microwave bands. However, paths can be planned with confidence using the guidance indicated in these documents; Wind Farms and Microwave Links – Harvey Lehpamer and Fixed Link Wind-Turbine Exclusion Zone Method – D F Bacon. These documents describe the general rules for exclusion zones around the path and distill it down to simple parameters. Harvey Lehpamer’s recommendation form his paper entitled Wind Farms and Microwave Links generally recommends the following:
These are approximations that vary with the path distance, frequency of the radios in the path, and size of the wind turbine
Have you ever suspected interference from a wind turbine? Please take a second and tell us what you did to resolve the problem below. Don’t forget to sign up for notification of future posts.
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