MW radio with encryption

[byja]

Does anyone know which vendors/radios support encryption of data sent over the radio link? We're talking about standard point-to-point microwave radios, in usual 6-38 GHz band. I believe Aviat (Harris Stratex) does this, do you know of any other perhaps?

[SCHERIFFHELMY]

Hi
SIEMENS SRT1F Some SW models support the CDMA coding

[pravdivi]

Does anyone know which vendors/radios support encryption of data sent over the radio link? We're talking about standard point-to-point microwave radios, in usual 6-38 GHz band. I believe Aviat (Harris Stratex) does this, do you know of any other perhaps?

Can i ask you, for what purpose you need encryption? Just curious.

[SCHERIFFHELMY]

Very clear
encryption can resist interference and can also be used in BW improvement

[pravdivi]

Resist interference with encryption? As for me it is strange way. There is simplest solutions for this issue.

[waqasahsan]

Encryption is used for security reason, not for interference mitigation or anything of the sort. I believe nearly all Microwave vendors now offer Encryption as an "addon" feature; to name a few Dragonwave, Huawei, NEC

[byja]

Well, I personally don't need it, but some idiot who wrote certain requirements for TETRA backhaul was a bit concerned over security issues. Which is expected, knowing that you design TETRA networks for specific customers, but still...
Scheriffhelmy, there's encryption, but there's also scrambling, which may sound similar, but are two different things with two different goals.

[simog72]

also pay attention on the "cost" of the encryption process..normally latency increases , capacity decrease (OH of the encryption..AES 128/256 normally) and some compression performances could be effected..i can confirm that a lot of vendors offer ENCRYPT as optional functionalities, some times done by hardware FPGA or proprietary solution (good) some time SW (bad) .

[roben001]

What is the order of capacity decrease when using encryption, as well as latency increase? is anyone aware of companies that have hardware based encryption? how would the encryption affect compression, and if i decided to use encryption on a radio that uses compression, should i disable one to enable the other? or is there some work around?

[byja]

Like I said, it's usually a request when a link is used for specific applications (governmental). As such, things like capacity or latency are not that important.

Besides, encryption does not necessarily add significant overhead to the existing traffic. As for the latency, it could be a problem, but depending on implementation it usually adds fixed delay, much less of a problem than variable delay.

One more thing, "basic packet compression" (IFG + preambule removal) should be done prior to encryption anyway, so enc shouldn't affect your L1 compression gain. Rest depends on whether you encrypt data or both data and overhead. Radio link should probably do both.

[waqasahsan]

Totally agree with byja. I believe all major Microwave industry players offer hardware based encryption, however its not part of the default feature-set and license needs to be purchased on demand. I know that Dragonwave, NEC and Huawei atleast, offer encryption.

[vimcma]

Even if you will not have HW encryption on equipment now it is easy to organize it inside the traffic ...