The movement toward 4G mobile backhaul is underway and according to new research findings, the majority of carriers will be near deployment completion by 2013.
The findings mentioned here are from an Infonetics (News - Alert) Research published report. The firm recently announced important new findings in 4G mobile backhaul. Two published reports,
Small Cell and LTE (News - Alert) Backhaul Strategies, with principal analyst Michael Howard in the lead, and
Small Cell Deployment Strategies, with Stephane Teral (News - Alert), principal analyst, in the lead, highlight progress made and plans for small integration in deployment strategies.
To conduct its research, Infonetics surveyed mobile operators, as well as mobile backhaul transport providers throughout the world. Each participant has already deployed or plans to deploy 4G mobile backhaul to support LTE by 2012. These operators represent more than half of the world’s telecom carrier CAPEX and revenue.
Notable findings from this report include the rapid deployment of 4G mobile backhaul technologies. The majority of mobile operators, as well as transport providers, are set to have more than 90 percent of their cell sites IP/Ethernet connected by 2013. Another 70 percent plan to implement some form of MPLS at their cell sites and will only lease layer 2 from transport providers.
“While operators handle most of their mobile traffic with macrocells (90 percent on average) and the backhaul network, we were surprised to find that operators we surveyed already offload about 10 percent of their traffic over indoor and outdoor small cells, WiFi (News
- Alert) hotspots, and residential femtocells – and they intend to triple that to about 30 percent at some point in 2013 or later,” noted Howard in a statement.
While small cells are commonly viewed as a key characteristic within the makeup of LTE networks, there is also a growing acceptance that this technology will play a vital role in the rollout of HSPA networks. So far, small cells have played a very minor role in these environments, yet the push toward 4G mobile backhaul has changed the rules of the game.
Howard added, “This trend really highlights the importance of spectrum offload and backhaul offload strategies to operators. Of the mobile traffic handling alternatives, outdoor small cells will see the most growth in use among our respondents, increasing five-fold from 2011 to 2013 or later. And for operators deploying outdoor small cells, the most popular technologies to use in 2013 will be Ethernet on fiber, Ethernet-only microwave, and Ethernet on copper.”
To gather its data on the 4G mobile backhaul market, Infonetics surveyed 27 mobile, competitive and incumbent operators and mobile backhaul transport service providers in EMEA, Asia Pacific and North America. The study provides an accurate measure of the use and plans for deployment around macrocell and small cell technologies to support 4G mobile backhaul.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Jennifer Russell