In a report issued last month, Infonetics Research of Campbell, Calif., noted that carriers are increasing their spending on Ethernet technologies in general, with Ethernet microwave for backhaul expected to be the fastest growing segment.

"One market that's completely defying the downturn in every part of the world is mobile backhaul," said Michael Howard, Infonetics' principal analyst. With handset users increasingly using their devices for data -- accessing Web pages, downloading music and sending video - many mobile providers are adding data capacity to their networks. But most backhaul has been designed for voice so traffic, in his words, is being "scrunched."

Infonetics calculates that in North America alone it will take five years to replace the copper cable connecting cellular sites with fibre. Meanwhile operators carriers like have to pay telcos that own the fixed lines billions of dollars in backhaul fees.

An alternative is microwave Ethernet backhaul, which can handle data packets. Infonetics believes that as of 2008 about seven per cent of cellular towers were connected by microwave. By 2011 that could reach 20 per cent, said Howard.

One Howard said that DragonWave faces is that competitors include industry giants such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and NEC.