Asia-Pacific cellular telcos will adopt all-IP backhaul by 2012

Asian telcos will be tapping next generation networks (NGN) for their wireless backhaul by 2012 to satisfy surging demand from bandwidth hungry services and devices, according to international research and analyst firm IDC. IDC predicts there will be more than 3 million base stations and over 1.8 million cell sites in the Asia Pacific by 2012, representing a growth of 24.3 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively, from 2008. It expects half of these sites will be connected to fiber through carrier Ethernet. Urban 3G high-speed packet access (HSPA) will be linked to fiber by 2011 in most markets in the region. IDC also foresees that almost all urban WiMAX and Long Term Evolution (LTE) base stations will be connected using fiber by 2012. Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) microwave and fixed WiMAX will be used to provide up to 300 Mbps backhaul in areas where fiber is not available. Scalable, high bandwidth backhaul "A number of leading mobile carriers in Asia/Pacific, in countries such as Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Philippines and Singapore, are already starting to connect parts of their metropolitan 3G/HSPA backhauls with carrier Ethernet over fiber," said Bill Rojas, research director for IDC’s Asia/Pacific Telecommunications Research. "The main driver of this transformation is the need for mobile operators to provide scalable, high-bandwidth, Web 2.0 video and audio content, and Internet access services for both mobile and fixed users in incremental capex outlays." The report adds that mobile operators face challenges in addressing the need to provide more bandwidth to end-user devices at the downlink and uplink ends. Among others, it highlights the current market development where mobile operators have to look at increasing data average return per unit (ARPU) to offset the decline in voice ARPU. IDC also points out that telcos should be aware their introduction of higher data speed services will potentially result in exponential increases in data traffic but it will not necessarily be translated into higher data ARPU. Business model safeguarding telcos, yet satisfying customers The solution, it adds, is for operators to offer scalable bandwidth but at tariff schedules that resembles a combination of flat-rate plateau with specific usage caps. Scalable bandwidth in the backhaul will be important to balance opex and capex, otherwise the operators may find themselves in the noncompetitive situation of not being able to offer new multimedia-rich wireless services because of incremental bandwidth constraints, the report said. “Without such a transformation of the wireless backhaul, the promise of 3.5G and 4G systems such as LTE will not be feasible. The emergence of bandwidth hungry devices such as Apple's 3G iPhone and Google’s Android-operating system based devices means that mobile operators need to begin the transformation to NGN in the backhaul urgently in order to avoid being branded as obsolete,” Rojas added. Next generation backhaul is the way to go IDC believes that in order to support high-speed wireless services, operators will need to build scalable all-IP backhaul which combines carrier Ethernet and fiber distribution in the urban centers, as well as microwave backhaul and long-haul dense wavelength division multiplexing (LH DWDM). Green IT will put additional pressure on radio access network (RAN) and backhaul designs to become more energy efficient. The multitude of radio standards is also putting pressure on vendors to implement reconfigurable software solutions in the base station, IDC stresses. If operators delay the revamp of their mobile core networks to an all-IP platform, they will be left behind. Raising a red flag, the report adds that unlike existing 2G, 2.5G and 3G networks, the users of converged mobile devices — 3.5G HSDPA and Wi-Fi, dual-mode support and upcoming 802.16e mobile WiMAX devices — will expect 1 Mbps speed all the time, anywhere and everywhere. With LTE just around the corner, which could see peak capacity of over 100-150 Mbps per cell site, operators deploying such technology in dense urban areas could be facing huge bandwidth requirements, invariably putting enormous stress on the existing backhaul and transport infrastructure, IDC warns.

Source : telecommagazine.com