Infonetics report that mobile backhaul gear remains in high demand

The latest market share and forecast report by Infonetics Research stated that the market for mobile backhaul gear will continue to grow.

The biannual Infonetics report, Macrocell Mobile Backhaul Equipment and Services, ranks mobile backhauling equipment vendors, identifies areas of growth for the market, and analyzes equipment, connections, cell sites, and service charges. The report tracks companies worldwide and covers areas of interest such as market share, size, and forecasts, installed cell sites, and service charges.

The market for macrocell mobile backhaul equipment could look forward to slow but steady growth. Verizon Wireless and AT&T may not be buying any new mobile backhaul equipment since they are close to completing their first big wave of LTE deployments. But they're not the only buyers in a very large one with plenty of room for growth. Rising requirements for capacity have driven network operators outside of North America buy microwave gear for additional mobile backhauling capabilities.

The macrocell mobile backhaul equipment market is forecasted to grow to $9.7 billion in 2016. Infonetics further predicted that $43.6 billion worth of macrocell mobile backhaul equipment will be purchased from 2012 to 2016.

Microwave equipment accounts for more than half of all spending in the mobile backhauling market. Supporting this is the Infonetics report, which discovered that 94 % of total purchased macrocell mobile backhaul equipment are IP/Ethernet gear. And 54% of the IP/Ethernet gear are packet-capable microwave types.

According to Infonetics, revenue for Ethernet mobile backhauling router will probably peak in 2015. The build out of macrocell mobile backhaul is expected to subside during that year. From then on, companies will shift their focus to cheaper, easier to deploy small cells.

ACCC fines CNT Corp nearly $20,000 for inadequate backhaul networks

Telephone and internet service provider CNT Corp, has been slapped with a $19,800 fine for its inadequate backhauling services which failed to deliver broadband speeds the company had initially advertised. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) - an agency which monitors fair-trade practices in the country, and is concerned with consumer protection and welfare - fined the company for falsely promoting that it could deliver speeds of up to 1000 mbps to with its FTTP broadband services. 

Based on an investigation by the ACCC, CNT Corp’s backhaul capacity could hardly support 20 mbps for a single user. This meant the broadband customers relying on the latter’s services were paying for speeds that they were not even getting. The chairperson of the ACCC said the incident with CNT Corp should serve as a warning to various telecom operators not to advertise services they cannot deliver. With demand for faster services increasing with the surge of smartphone users and the rise of other powerful computing devices, operators right and left have been advertising “high-speed” broadband. 

The ACCC is making sure all those offering such services comply to stringent regulations. CNT Corp, on the other hand, has been given 3 infringement notices, and must upgrade its present backhaul networks. They’ve also been advised to give gift vouchers to customers affected by their broadband services.

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Backhauling: Technical And Commercial Definitions

In both the technical and commercial definitions, backhaul generally refers to the side of the network that communicates with the global Internet, paid for at wholesale commercial access rates to or at an Ethernet Exchange, a physical network infrastructure through which Ethernet service provider, carriers and Internet service providers exchange Ethernet traffic between their networks; or other core network access location.

In the broadband Internet industry, the “middle mile” is the segment if a telecommunications network linking a network operator’s core network to the local network plant, typically situated in the incumbent telco’s central office (British English: telephone exchange), that provides access to the local loop, or in the case of cable television operators, the local cable modem termination system. Sometimes, these networks exist between the customer’s local area network (“LAN”), a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building using network media, and those exchanges. This can be a local Wide Area Network (“WAN”), a network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network rgar links across metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries, or  wireless local area network (“WLAN”) connection, which lunks two or more devices using some wireless distribution method (typically spread-spectrum or OFDM radio), and usually proividing a connection through an access point to the wider Internet. For instance, Network New Hampshire Now and Maine Fiber Company run tariffed--a “telecommunications tariff” is an open contact between a telecommunications service provider and the public, filed with a regulating body such as Public Utilities Commission--public dark fibre (“unlit fibre”) networks, an unused optical fibre, available for use in fibre-optic communication, as a backhaul alternative to encourage local and national carriers to reach areas with the following, otherwise it would not be serving: broadband, a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device (and the broader the band, the greater the capacity for traffic); and cell phone (also known as “cellular phone,” “mobile phone,” and a “hand phone”), a device that can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. These serve retail networks which in turn connect buildings and bill customer directly.

Cell phones communicating with a single cell tower constitute a local subnetwork. It is the connection between the cell tower, a site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed, usually on a radio mast, tower or other high place, to create a cell (or adjacent cells) in a cellular network, and the rest of the world beginning with a backhaul link to the core of the Internet service provider’s network (“ISP”), an organization that provides access to the Internet; via a point of presence (“POP”), an artificial demarcation point or interface point between communications entities.
The term backhaul is often generically used to describe the entire wired part of the network, though this is confused by the use of microwave bands, or radio waves with wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as if millimetre, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz (0.3 GHz) and 300 GHz; and mesh network and edge network topologies, a type of networking where each node must not only capture and disseminate its own data, but also serve as a “relay” for other nodes, that is, it must collaborate to propagate the data in  the network--uses a high capacity wireless channel to get packets to the microwave or fibrr links.

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How smart functionality improves mobile backhaul performance for LTE networks

As more and more mobile operators offer commercial long-term evolution (LTE) services, mobile users are demanding higher quality of services (QoS.) One way for LTE operators to respond is by installing smart functionality in their mobile backhaul networks.

Smart mobile backhaul is not just about the efficient transport of traffic. It covers a wide variety of services ranging from small cell aggregation to terabit routing. An efficient solution must be up to the task of gathering data, securing the network, and synchronizing backhauling processes on its own.

Network operators can use tools to automate routine tasks and save on operational expenses. These automated networks are important in small cell deployments and similar mass network rollouts. By creating a self-organizing network that automatically deals with routine tasks, operators can spend all their energies on business-critical functions.

Ease and simplicity of operations and management are paramount for smart mobile backhaul networks. They require network manager tools to best direct its evolution and growth.

Compatibility is another important issue for networks. A mobile backhaul network must be able to support both legacy 2G/3G standards and the new 4G standard. It should also be able to smoothly transition to LTE and LTE-A standards while allowing users to continue accessing its services.

Proxim Tsunami mobile backhaul helps secure Villefontaine, France

Proxim Wireless Corporation announced that it deployed a mobile backhaul solution for the security and surveillance systems of Villefontaine, France. The French town deployed a wireless HD video surveillance system that leveraged Tsunami QB-8150 wireless backhaul products.

The Community of Villefontaine is a suburb of the City of Lyon. A relatively young town, it is located in the Rhone-Alps Region.

Villefontaine local government dispersed its facilities all across the town to best serve its population. However, this made it difficult for the local police force to regularly patrol such a large area, not to mention quickly responding to emergency incidents. Therefore, Villefontaine authorities decided to deploy a video surveillance system that could assist local law enforcement in protecting and maintaining the safety of the community.

For the Villefontaine mobile backhaul project, Proxim Wireless tapped its certified regional partner, Libertylan, to perform a detailed wireless site survey and serve as project integrator. Proxim Wireless and Libertylan then replaced existing leased lines with secure wireless links. The completed high capacity radio network now provides secure wireless transmission of video images, data transfer services, and VoIP services to Villefontaine.

Thierry Gouin, IT director for the Community Council of Villefontaine, stated that the mobile backhaul system installed by Proxim Wireless performed flawlessly and proved very secure. The Council was thus able to save money by canceling its leases on several fiber lines which had now become superfluous.

Tekelec providing Diameter Signaling Router for T-Mobile USA LTE Network

Mobile broadband solutions company Tekelec will be providing its Diameter Signaling Router (DSR) to T-Mobile USA as the latter prepares for the 2013 launch of its high-speed long term evolution (LTE) wireless network.

The Tekelec DSR will serve as a central control point for T-Mobile to route policy, charging, and subscriber messages. Efficient routing is important in the management of the New Diameter Network's signaling growth and earning revenue from mobile data services.

A centralized Diameter network does not need to update all network elements whenever new equipment or roaming interconnections are added. This helps control costs even as the LTE network and interconnections expands in size.

The DSR intelligently checks real-time network conditions in order to most efficiently transmit signaling messages. It will spread the signaling volume across charging systems, policy servers, subscriber databases, and other network elements. This method of signaling distribution will decongest equipment and eliminate disruptive ‘signaling storms.'

Tekelec currently supplies 19 customers with Diameter Signaling Routers and related services. Five of those customers are operate Tier 1 LTEs in North America. Tekelec will present and demonstrate mobile data monetization strategies for LTE operators at Singapore's LTE Asia 2012 on September 17-19.

The groundbreaking Tekelec LTE Diameter Signaling Index will be a great boon to business executives, network architects, and engineers. Tekelec predicts that by the time 206 rolls in, the Asia-Pacific region will be the world leader in in Diameter signaling.

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Qualcom buys DesignArt Networks for more than $100 million

Chip maker Qualcomm Incorporated made an unofficial announcement that it has purchased mobile backhaul infrastructure designer DesignArt Networks for more than $100 million.

An Israeli start-up company founded in 2006, DesignArt creates infrastructure solutions for 3G/4G mobile backhaul networks. It focuses on creating data-centric mobile radio access networks for wireless backhaul infrastructure using integrated system-on-chip platforms and embedded SW solutions.

Back in April, Intel and Qualcomm had both expressed interest in purchasing DesignArt. Qualcomm beat its chip maker rival to the reported tune of around $120-140 million.

Qualcomm is expected to make an official announcement soon. DesignArt will probably be integrated into its new owner's Atheros Division, which was originally semiconductor developer Atheros before Qualcomm purchased it in 2011 for $3.1 billion.

Qualcomm Incorporated received the 2012 U.S. Fleet Manager's Choice Award. It is considered to be the best supplier of advanced telematics services by Frost & Sullivan and more than 90% of Qualcomm's customers. Its recent acquisition of DesignArts further enhances its expertise in mobile backhaul products.

Windstream picks Goodman Networks as preferred FttT supplier

Wireless network service provider Goodman Networks Inc. will serve as the preferred supplier of Windstream Corp. while the latter company deploys Fiber to the Tower (FttT) mobile backhaul solutions in the U.S.

Goodman Networks is a leading U.S. company that designs, engineers, deploys, integrates, and maintains wireless networks in the United States. It helps Windstream generate the additional backhaul bandwidth needed for LTE/4G growth by delivering fiber connectivity from Windstream’s network to the cellular towers of leading wireless service providers.

Goodman Networks' backhauling solutions aim to create efficient processes and establish program planning between Windstream and its wireless service customers. Backhauling will lower deployment costs and, incidentally, reduce Windstream’s carbon footprint as fewer number of trips are needed to upgrade the network for LTE/4G applications.

“We believe that Windstream’s leading-edge FttT solution provides wireless carriers a unique ability to meet their growing need for wireless backhaul," said Josh Shipman, EVP of Sales and Business Development at Goodman Networks. "We share many of the same wireless customers as Windstream and look forward to helping them deliver this technology to these customers.”

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Mobile backhaul testing needs updates, says Frost and Sullivan analysts

Current methods of testing mobile backhaul require updates that reflect the ongoing shifts to new technologies and architectures, said analysts from Frost & Sullivan.

The 3G telecom industry is currently shifting to Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 4G technologies. At the same time, mobile backhaul is moving to new architectures like Internet protocol (IP) and Ethernet, with backhaul speed going from TDM to hit up to 10 GB at certain facilities.

Due to the recent, massive, and rapid proliferation of media-rich and bandwidth-intensive applications, network operators are reevaluating the mobile network infrastructure. Testing companies are also implementing certification programs that intend to ensure telecom-network standards are upheld. The certifications' homogenous network devices work together to implement OEM technologies across the networks.

According to Mariano Kimbara, a senior research analyst for Frost & Sullivan, these paradigm shifts are creating opportunities for mobile backhaul testing. This migration presents a number of key growth opportunities for test equipment vendors,” he told the Backhaul Bulletin.

Mr. Kimbara went on to explain that mobile backhaul test equipment vendors would find it profitable to develop solutions that ensure mobile backhaul testing can operate with multiple networks. Customers are looking for a one-stop-shop investment to get all test deployments from a single source,” he said.

Mr. Kimbara explained that one of the main factors driving demand for the mobile backhaul test equipment markets is the continuous replacement of time-division multiplexing (TDM) technologies into Ethernet and IP technologies. According to him, the industry is going through an unprecedented high growth in mobile traffic and data. The massive demand stresses the importance of a new set of dynamics and realignment for mobile backhaul.

Within this transition, it is crucial for IP and Carrier Ethernet to stay ahead of higher-bandwidth and quality-intensive service demands, such as data, voice and video services delivered over the network,” Mr. Kimbara said.

The change in the infrastructure architecture that delivers LTE services is opening up growth opportunities of testing. By 2011, there were approximately 30 commercial LTEs. And Mr. Kimbara expects that voice over LTE (VoLTE) will be first implemented in 2012.

For at least the next two to three years, the industry is expected to experience a combination of both E1/T1 (for voice) and Ethernet/IP (for data services) technologies in the mobile backhaul market,” he said.

Mr. Kimbara further said that the hybrid-network approach poses several key challenges to the industry, as such networks must be compatible with both legacy networks and new architectures. Carriers are thus forced to look for cost-efficient ways to sustain two separate, different networks. At the same time, the new architectures are attempting to match the standard set by TDM networks.

Dell'Oro: Mobile backhaul market will hit $9 billion in 2016

Dell’Oro Group had just released its 5-Year Forecast, which predicts the mobile backhaul market will hit $9 billion by 2016, with routers and switches accounting for almost a third of the market value.

According to Dell'Oro's Mobile Backhaul Market Research division, the demand for mobile backhaul continues to grow at a fast pace. Backhaul operators are deploying new cellular sites and transitioning to an all-IP network. Dell'Oro expects that the operators will keep evolving their backhaul networks by further improving routers and switches at cell sites and the edge of the network to achieve better throughput and efficiency.

The report goes on to predict that backhaul transport will grow at a 2 percent compounded annual growth rate to $6 billion by 2016, with microwave backhauling accounting for over half of the sites. Meanwhile, the router and switch equipment sector should grow at a 9 percent compounded annual growth rate to nearly $3 billion, which is 30 percent of the market.

Continuing, mobile backhaul operators will be rolling out macro cell sites to improve coverage. At the same time, they will deploy micro and pico cells or small cells in metro locations to increase backhaul capacity. Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) solutions are expected to become the choice to provide backhaul for small cells.

Dell’Oro Group's Mobile Backhaul 5-year Forecast is a thorough overview of trends and forecasts for the mobile backhaul market. Among the information it presents are tables on manufacturers’ revenue, backhaul links, average selling price forecasts for the Mobile Backhaul Transport and Routers & Switches, worldwide and regional cellular subscribers, and cell sites.

EDX releases SignalPro v8.0 network design tool for small cell network designers

Confronted with the growing complexities of BWA, M2M, and mobile backhaul deployments, EDX Wireless recently announced the release of the v8.0 version of its EDX SignalPro wireless network design and optimization software.

"Version 8.0 of SignalPro has been designed with the needs of increasingly complex Broadband Wireless Access (BWA), Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and backhaul deployments in mind," said Mark Chapman, CEO of EDX. "Looking forward, we see this release as a critical step in supporting the automation of small cell deployments as they emerge. We are pleased to be able to offer this level of wireless network analysis and design automation to our customers," CEO Chapman said, and added that SignalPro's newest version "will greatly simplify the design and optimization of large and integrated networks."

v8.0 improves SignalPro's Point-to-Multipoint (PtMP) planning capabilities. It also adds a good number of new features as an inline upgrade for the entire EDX range of products.

SignalPro v8.0 supports native 64-bit operation, allowing it to rapidly process data for the kind of large projects usually found in traditional Smart Grids and the new small cell systems. Enhancements to the EDX product's PtMP design and analysis capability will allow it to be used for large-scale BWA, M2M, and integrated backhaul design.

Like previous releases, v8.0 also supports an extensive range of study types. Multipoint system links can thus be analyzed using virtually any type of technology.

In addition, the SignalPro + Network Design Module package also has the Automatic Frequency Planning. This assignment mode considers a comprehensive set of system constraints that can be thoroughly programmed to coordinate CPE channel and server assignments, thus optimizing the channel plan. Meanwhile, its Automated Site Selection utility picks hub sites and CPE's from a candidate list based on an RF-optimized site selection algorithm. This simplifies project design for systems with known candidates, initial estimates, presales analysis, and RFP responses.

In addition, SignalPro v8.0 has a fully programmable query function and statistical analysis utility, allowing it to show key statistics and study results.

2.5M distributed antenna system nodes sold by 2017, says report

A new report suggests that the rapidly increasing popularity of mobile devices will lead to the purchase of 2.5 million Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) over the next five years.

According to "Global DAS Market: DAS combined with Public Safety, WiFi, and Small Cells," the DAS landscape will greatly expand over the next few years. The report's author -principal analyst Joe Madden of Mobile Experts- predicts that there will be about 2.5 million DAS nodes shipped by the end of 2017.

"The DAS market will roughly double in size over the next five years,” analyst Madden predicted, “with a dramatic increase in the combination of DAS with Wi-Fi, public safety radio and LTE networks. In addition,” he opined, “when high-capacity small cells such as picocells are more widely available, we can expect small cells to replace macrocells as the primary signal source for indoor DAS systems."

Madden’s report also warns that DAS node providers are barely able to keep up with the demand for their products, especially given the rate the world is adopting wireless networks. (This is in line with the related demand for more bandwidth and the mobile backhauling techniques employed by operators to generate more capacity in an existing network.)

Subscribers were shown to prefer wireless networks that let them network multiple mobile devices to achieve better communications at their leisure. As more and more people embrace the use of mobile devices, laptops, and ultrabooks, the demand for faster, more capacious wireless networks –and the Distributed Antenna Systems that generate those networks- will only continue to grow until 2017, when the economic system is expected to hit its ceiling and demand tapers off.

Ruckus Smart Mesh: Leveraging small cell mobile backhauling

Small cells are a new architectural approach to increase capacity of service provider networks. Essentially miniaturized base stations, they combine licensed and unlicensed radio technology with wireless backhaul. The result: Short-ranged, lower-powered wireless signals that deliver better signal coverage, improved voice quality, and higher data performance to mobile users.

Small cell technology can be used to generate high-quality mobile signals indoors and at remote outdoor locations. It can also satisfy the growing demand for mobile data by expanding a macro network’s data capacity at a fraction of the cost.

Robert Joyce, chief radio engineer at Telefonica UK, noted that the major obstacle to deploying small cell was finding a reliable and yet inexpensive way to backhaul traffic from hundreds or even thousands of small cell nodes.

That is where Ruckus Wireless’ Smart Mesh technology comes in. Smart Mesh combines advanced self-organizing network (SON) principles with Ruckus-patented adaptive antenna arrays and predictive channel management techniques. The synergized technologies and techniques result in Wi-Fi mesh backbone links between nodes that are highly resilient and rated at speeds of 5 GHz.

These links automatically adapt to changes in environmental conditions. Wireless service providers like O2 and its owner, Telefonica UK, can use those links to mesh traffic. The innovative method will allow delivery of reliable backhaul for licensed cellular and unlicensed Wi-Fi traffic in both line of sight and non-line of site environments.

The Ruckus SmartCell system allows the innovative use of LTE small cells to give mobile operators a boost in capacity. By co-locating and combining LTE small cells with Wi-Fi access points, which allows LTE small cells to share site-lease agreements and backhaul, wireless network operators can simplify operations and save money.

In addition, by integrating Wi-Fi and LTE small cells within the cellular core, operators can better optimize network utilization across the radio access network. Subscribers will get to enjoy further improvement in performance and a seamless Wi-Fi experience.

Mr. Joyce can attest to the effectiveness of the SmartMesh-empowered mobile backhauling services. "With Smart Mesh,” said the Telefonica chief radio engineer, “we are running fiber to just one of every five nodes.” Reducing the amount of fiber led to savings in capital and OPEX. It also allowed faster deployment of the system and similarly speedy delivery of the wireless service.

RAD ETX-5300 joins Best Carrier Ethernet Aggregation Product Award final list

A prestigious panel of industry judges at the 2012 Carrier Ethernet World Congress added RAD Data Communications's ETX-5300A Ethernet service aggregation platform to the list of finalists for this year's Carrier Ethernet Award.

The brand new RAD product snagged a shortlisted position in the Best Carrier Ethernet Aggregation Product category for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) market.

The ETX-5300A moves Ethernet and TDM traffic from the access network to the provider’s edge over native 10-Gigabit Ethernet links. It allows operators to optimize converged business, wholesale, and mobile backhaul services using a single device. This will bring significant reductions to operational costs per Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) link. 

Judges will be drawn from leading industry analyst firms (such as Ovum and Infonetics) and telecom operators (like Telus, Colt, Oi Brasil, and NTT Japan.) 

The Best Carrier Ethernet Aggregation Product will be presented under the auspices of event organizer IIR Telecoms & Technology in front of the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF).

The Spanish city of Barcelona will host this year's Carrier Ethernet World Congress. The ceremony for its Carrier Ethernet Awards will be held on September 18.

In 2011, RAD received two Carrier Ethernet Awards at two different Carrier Ethernet gatherings. The company, which primary handle mobile backhauling, is the only vendor which received more than one award.

Last year's winning products were ETX-203A, which Singapore acknowledged as the "best Carrier Ethernet demarcation product in Asia-Pacific;" and the ETX-205A, which won the award for "Best Carrier Ethernet mobile backhaul product in EMEA" during the Carrier Ethernet World Congress 2011 in Amsterdam.

Lemko DiMoWiNe offers mobile backhaul-free LTE

Lemko Corporation is advertising its Distributed Mobile Wireless Network (DiMoWiNe) as a cheaper yet similarly-effective substitute for backhaul services. And it's putting its Long Term Evolution (LTE) concept on its first big trial with a Canadian Tier 1 operator.

In a Light Reading article, the small Illinois-based company proposes doing away with the intermediate links between the core/backbone network and the subnetworks at the edge of the hierarchical network.

Instead, Lemko suggested virtualizing the network's Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and IMS functionality. By removing the backhaul and converting the entire switching center into software, a network operator could perform all LTE operations -authentication, switching, routing, and rating- at the eNodeB, a Layer 7 cloud application at the network's edge.

DiMoWiNe is expected to reduce operating expenses by four-fifths, with Lemko estimating that the cost spent for each gigabyte will drop from $5 to $1. The new technology will also decongest the spectrum, allowing wireless operators to reduce their dependency on expensive Wi-Fi offload.


"DiMoWiNe turns cellular into an app that jumps on the Internet right away," says Lemko COO Bohdan Pyskir.

Lemko's DiMoWiNe has been deployed at more than 500 commercial and military-operated locations. One notable example cited are the primarily rural wireless operators in remote areas like Alaskan fishing towns. Big operators do not cover these areas because of the lack of infrastructure and- according to COO Psikyir- motivation.

The biggest test for Lemko is a five-month trial with a Canadian Tier 1 operator. Lemko is also pitching its DiMoWiNe concept to other Tier 1 operators as a competitive substitute to backhaul.

On July 24, 2012, Lemko Corporation also announced that its DiMoWiNe 4G system has reached interoperability for roaming between 700MHz LTE lower band class 12 and band class 17.

Infonetics: Cloud services, data traffic pushing Ethernet, IP MPLS VPN services to $81B by 2016

Excerpts from Infonetics Research's 2012 Ethernet and IP MPLS VPN Services report suggests that the IP MPLS VPNs and Ethernet service markets will hit a combined total of $81 billion by 2016.

Infonetics, a market research firm, analyzed the market for both managed and unmanaged layer 2 and layer 3 IP MPLS VPN services, as well as wholesale and retail Ethernet services, in order to make short-term and long-term forecasts.

Michael Howard, the firm's co-founder and principal analyst, explained that the migration from legacy frame relay, ATM, and leased line services to Ethernet and IP services is accelerating.  Businesses intent on maintaining competitiveness in the highly-interconnected, mobile, video- and cloud-oriented world were hastening the move to the newer mediums.

"By 2015, ATM and frame relay will virtually vanish," Mr. Howard predicted, "While private leased lines will be around a bit longer."

According to Mr. Howard, Europe's 2011-2012 slowdown was not going to slow the "solid growth" of both IP MPLS VPNs and Ethernet services. He predicted that the two services together would reach $81 billion worldwide in four years.

Cost-cutting initiatives, cloud services, and surging data traffic fueled the growth of Global Ethernet and MPLS IP VPN. Their service revenue grew a combined 13% in 2011 to just over $50 billion. In comparison, the growth rate of telecom service provider revenue is a distant second, even though actual service provider revenue has been increasing.

In addition, according to Infonetics Research, the Asia Pacific region already leads the EMEA in Ethernet services. Asia will be expected to become the leading region for IP MPLS VPN services by 2012. It will also remain the leader for the combined IP MPLS VPN and Ethernet services market, with China and India leading the market. IP/Ethernet gear accounted for 90% of mobile backhaul equipment expenditure in 2011.

BTI deploys mobile backhaul solutions for Fiberail in Malaysia

Metro networking company BTI Systems announced on July 19, 2012 that major Malaysian wholesale operator Fiberail expanded its deployment of BTI's Integrated Services Delivery Platform solutions.

Fiberail will be delivering Mobile Backhaul and Carrier Ethernet Business services across Malaysia through BTI's network solution. The Malaysian operator will also be able to provide "international interconnect" services to Thailand and Singapore.

Malaysia's telecommunications providers and its leading 3G Mobile and 4G WiMax operators rely upon Fiberail's extensive infrastructure and ancillary services throughout Peninsular Malaysia. Fiberail operates three fiber optic cable networks thousands of kilometers long that deliver voice, data and video capabilities through all major Malaysian towns. In addition, Fiberail recently expanded its metro Ethernet services to operators and financial service organizations, and it also provides services for global customers.

Fiberail chose the BTI 7000 Series packet optical networking platform, which converges Carrier Ethernet and wavelength services delivery at the metro service edge. The wavelength services are used by Fiberail to interconnect operators in neighboring countries, and the 7000 series' packetVX module cost-effective aggregation of 10G capacity for Mobile Backhaul and Ethernet services delivery. The use of a single platform to integrate different services also obviated the need for new infrastructure equipment.

In addition, Fiberail will also use the BTI 700 Series to directly deliver Ethernet connectivity to customer premises through the access network. Fiberail will be able to extend Carrier Ethernet services to business customers, carriers, cell towers, and data center operators.

The synergy between the BTI 7000 Series and 700 Series gives Fiberail the ability to provide end-to-end, low-latency Mobile Backhaul services to its many customers.

The rapidly-growing Malaysia market for broadband and mobile services currently has more than 34 million mobile subscribers. with one out of every three of those mobile subscribers owning 3G devices that require rapid content access. Broadband is estimated to have penetrated more than 55 percent of the households.

The market's growth is driven by mobile data and the demand for fixed broadband. Pyramid Research expects the telecom market to reach $14.6 billion service revenue by 2017. With BTI's help, Fiberail aims to leverage those new opportunities through its upgrades and expanded services.

MEF adds mobile backhaul to CE 2.0 agenda

The recent Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) took a look at mobile backhaul services as another application to be developed for the planned Carrier Ethernet (CE) 2.0 standard.

The MEF concluded the fiscal year 2012 with numerous highlights. This included passing the 200-member company mark, certifying over 150 service providers and equipment vendors to CE 1.0, and bringing the number of MEF-CECPs (MEF Carrier Ethernet Certified Professionals) up to 300.

In addition to demonstrating current CE 2.0 service capabilities for private cloud environments and improving Carrier Ethernet's dynamism and responsiveness to future requirements, the MEF also recently released MEF 22.1 (Mobile Backhaul Implementation Agreement Phase 2.)

"As the demand for Ethernet Services for Mobile Backhaul continues to skyrocket," said Brian Rose, Director of Product Development at Cox Business, "MEF’s standards-based framework helps us continue to scale and optimize this business.”

More than 200 organizations make up the MEF global industry alliance. Member groups include telecommunications service providers, cable MSOs, network equipment/software manufacturers, semiconductor vendors, and testing organizations.

The MEF aims to hasten the worldwide adoption of standardized Carrier-class Ethernet networks and services. To this end, it enacted Carrier Ethernet technical specifications and implementation agreements that advance interoperability and Carrier Ethernet deployment.

CE 2.0 possess powerful and standardized attributes of Multi-CoS, Interconnect and Manageability. It will take Carrier Ethernet and telecommunications to the next level of capabilities and cost-efficiency in order to handle exponential growth of data in business, mobile, and cloud applications.

Wireless Broadband Services now from Cablevision

Over the years, Cablevision has been offering digital TV, high-speed internet, as well as home phone services to its customers. Now, the company is extending its services to fixed wireless broadband called OMGFAST in Florida. For a 50 mbps connection, customers are charged at a competitive $29.95.


Since 2004, Cablevision has been working in acquiring several broadband license in more than 45 markets, all through the subsidiary DTV Norwich, bidding in an auction by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Multichannel Video Data Distribution Services or MVDDS spectrum. 


The MVDDS spectrum delivers Internet services, as well as wireless video and voice to fixed receivers. Cablevision hopes to use the technology to also provide mobile backhaul services to wireless phone carriers. The company has already requested the FCC to increase the power levels of MVDSS transmitters. Since the release of powerful smartphones running on the Android platform courtesy of Google, and the seeming ubiquitous quality of iPhone's, the demands for mobile data has increased.


Mobile backhaul solutions are becoming more and more important with the proliferation of powerful, wireless gadgets. Just recently, the Farmers Mutual Telephone Company partnered with ADTRAN for the deployment of wireless backhaul communications. 

NSR: HTS, O3b shakes up wireless backhaul market

In its recently-released Wireless Backhaul via Satellite, 6th Edition, NSR identified significant short- and long-term shift from legacy SCPC and TDMA wireless backhaul systems to satellite-based systems that use High Throughput Satellites (HTS) and O3b.

According to the NSR, market players involved in space segment capacity and end-to-end services will encounter new opportunities and threats will arise as the market shifts. The same applies for companies who handle the equipment segment.

The global satellite backhaul market currently has a $800 million annual revenue base. But the NSR report expected the market's revenue to hit $2.3 billion in 2021.

In addition to their long-term effects, HTS and O3b will impose significant short-term changes in the wireless backhaul industry.

According to Jose Del Rosario, Senior Analyst for NSR and author of the wireless backhaul study, OPEX considerations brought about high bandwidth costs that slowed down the wireless backhaul market's adoption of satellite solutions.

HTs and 03b will make bandwidth much cheaper.  Coupled with the needs of the mobile workforce, market players will benefit from higher penetration levels in key markets for both developing and developed countries.

Furthermore, new programs may lead to a new look at currently-deployed solutions, which may then be abandoned for newer, more cost-efficient platforms. The space segment side has HTS and O3b; del Rosario also looks at cheaper, modestly-sized picocells. These picocells come with the benefit of lower CAPEX, which makes them more attractive for deployment on ground towers, maritime vessels, and commercial aircraft.

Cisco Routers in More Mobile Backhaul Facilities

Frontier Communications has began deploying Cisco ultra-fast router, making a great improvement on its carrier-grade 4G mobile backhaul facilities.

Cisco's Aggregation Services Router 9000 Series (ASR 9000) is expected to significantly improve Frontier's mobile backhaul performance in up to 20 US service areas. Frontier Communications is a broadband provider focusing in underserved regions. The embattled company is struggling to reverse declining sales. Its profit declined by 50% year-on-year last quarter as itloses more clients. 


Reallocation of resources from rural broadband to wireless backhaul business seems to be the most logical step to do to revive sales. China Telecom is also deploying Cisco routers. The telco will be rolling out IPTV services via ASR 9000, offering converged IPTV and VPN services. China Telecom is the country's biggest mobile telecommunications firm. The router will first be deployed in Chinese coastal areas, such as Shanghai, Guangdong and Fujian.Last year, Kabel Deutschland (KDG) also announced plans to deploy ASR 9000 for aggregation and distribution of video, voice and data services across its IP architecture, paving the way for enhanced services like 3-D TVchannels.


Other Backhaul Industry News


Belden will buy Miranda Technologies for about $330 million. The deal is seen as the end of the long battle between Miranda's management and investors, who believe that the firm is undervalued. Miranda elected a board member who finalized the sale at a price of $17 a share, amounting to C$345million or U.S. $330 million in total. For the most part of 2011, Miranda shares traded at $8. But share price rose late last year as stockholders called for partnership or a sale. 


Belden said Miranda's current operations , such as manufacturing and R&D, are so far not subject to planned changes.With no significant product overlap, the main concern is to maintain the continuity of supply and support for customers of both companies, said Belden. Miranda Technologies President Strath Goodship said Belden benefits from long list of successful businesses. The company has served a number of broadcast customers and is a highly reputed company in Canada and Montreal. He said collaborative efforts between Belden and Miranda will deliver value for all parties involved. He claims that the deal is fully supported by the management team of Miranda. 


In March, Miranda sided with dissidentinvestment group to endorse Tim Thorsteinson for inclusion to the board as areplacement of Thomas Cantwell. Miranda issued a separate release to affirmtheir support to Cantwell.

Comtech subsidiaries gets $1.7M equipment order from Asian mobile operator

Comtech Telecommunications Corp. announced yesterday that an Asian mobile network operator placed a $1.7 million equipment and optimization order with its Arizona-based subsidiary, Comtech EF Data Corp.

The mobile operator is planning to upgrade and expand its satellite-based mobile backhaul network using Comtech EF Data's Modems and RF Products. It will also procure RAN Optimization from another Comtech TC subsidiary, Memotec.

The Asian mobile operator will install the proven combination of Comtech EF Data's CDM-625 Advanced Satellite Modems and Memotec's CX-U Series RAN Optimization at new sites. Existing sites will also be upgraded with the new Comtech equipment to best optimize their network.

Comtech's CDM-625 Advanced Satellite Modem blends advanced forward error correction and bandwidth compression as provided by DoubleTalk(R) Carrier-in-Carrier(R.) DoubleTalk(R) allows a duplex link's transmit and receive carriers to share the same transponder space. These synergized technologies will help users minimize operational and capital expenditures by maximizing throughput/availability without the need to purchase and power additional transponders.

The CX-U Series combines the roles of a flexible access device and mobile backhaul traffic optimization. It offers a staggering range of backhaul interfaces and transmission options which includes Abis/Ater optimization, 2G/3G aggregation, DCME voice trunking optimization, TDM Pseudowire, all-over-IP, Frame Relay, or MLPPP protocol support.

Because of the CX-U's versatility and the critical role it plays in optimizing its mobile backhaul network, the Asian mobile operator decided to order several models -including the CX-U 1010, 1220 and 1280- to achieve a superb mix of access and optimization services.

In addition, Comtech's customer procured both indoor and outdoor models of Comtech EF Data's frequency conversion RF Products. The LPOD Block Up Converter, UT-4505 Up Converter, and the DT-4503 Down Converter will provide frequency conversion for outdoor environments. The rugged LPOD is weatherproof and designed to withstand harsh conditions, while the UT-4505 and the DT-4503 units can be mounted on a rack and are considered to be the end-all of high-performance and cost-effective frequency converters.

Comtech's new customer is the latest in a long list of similar companies and service providers around the world that have widely adopted Comtech's market-leading satellite communications solution featuring the CDM-625 modem and CX-U Series Double Talk(R) Carrier-in-Carrier(R.) The Comtech combination has been proven time and time again to deliver quality transmissions at a cost-efficient rate.

Omnitron iConverter GM4 NID successfully integrated with Cyan CyPortal

Omnitron Systems announced that it has succeeded in integrating its iConverter GM4 Network Interface Device (NID) into Cyan's multi-layer customer portal CyPortal.

Omnitron's iConverter GM4 NID is an industry-leading demarcation device that compiles key SLA performance metrics. The performance data gathered by iConverter is put to good use by Cyportal, the SLA assurance and customer portal component of Cyan's 360 OS.

CyPortal correlates the data gathered by iConverter and simila NIDS with individual customer services. It will then present that data through a customer-oriented view. CyPortal's SLA reports will detail key Ethernet service quality parameters like availability, delay, jitter, throughput, and packet loss across multi-vendor networks.

Service level assurance reports cover key Ethernet service quality parameters like availability, delay, jitter, throughput, and packet loss across networks that host multiple vendors. Accurate data like that provided by iConverter is important.

In a statement made by Frank Wiener, Vice President of Marketing for Cyan, the ability to provide uniform SLA performance reporting and customer portal services across heterogeneous networks through a range of industry-leading products was determined to be a key CyPortal attribute. Omnitron's iConverter GM4 was considered to be a very welcome addition to CyPortal's solution portfolio because the NID brought powerful new options for innovation and expansion of service providers' SLA assurance services

Known as a supplier of excellent fiber access products, Omnitron offers a number of critical services for Carrier Ethernet business services and mobile backhaul networks. Its iConverter GM4 provides comprehensive support for the IEEE 802.1ag and ITU-T Y.1731 standards, and is considered an industry leader when it comes to interoperability and monitoring SLA performance.

Safaricom exchanges legacy mobile backhaul for hybrid microwave backhaul

Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom is moving from legacy TDM mobile backhaul networks to hybrid microwave backhaul in order to better handle ever-expanding WiMAX and 3G data traffic.

Mobile operators around the world are upgrading legacy mobile backhaul networks designed for TDM traffic in order to handle high-speed Ethernet data for 3G and 4G mobile technologies. No two cases are the same, and operators are forced to carefully balance the introduction of new technologies, expenditures, and maintenance of existing services lest they lose customers.

Safaricom is working on maintaining its legacy E1 capacity for voice calls while also adding Ethernet/IP bandwidth for relatively-new but rapidly-growing 3G and WiMAX data traffic.

The Safaricom network is a typical mobile network built up over time with the additional complication of Safaricom's status as the leading mobile operator in Kenya and one of the largest African mobile operators. Many parts of its vast network still use legacy 2G TDM technology with Ethernet-to-E1 converters, .

More and more 3G subscribers have been signing up to Safaricom in recent years. These subscribers are using ever-increasing amounts of data bandwidth, which Safaricom’s TDM-based mobile backhaul is barely able to satisfy.

Safaricom responded to this gap by drawing on the expertise and technology of solution provider Aviat Networks. Aviat deployed its hybrid radio solution, the market-leading modular Eclipse microwave networking platform, which allows Safaricom to add IP data capacity for the unique needs of 3G subscribers while ensuring sufficient E1 capacity for voice calls.

In addition to solving its immediate issue, Eclipse will allow Safaricom to migrate to all-IP, 3G/4G-compatible mobile backhaul.

BTI, EMAXX will debut first 4G wireless service in Cambodia

BTI Systems will team up with Cambodian telecommunications provider EMAXX Telecom to provide mobile backhaul and other related satellite communications services to the lucrative Cambodian market.

EMAXX intends to become the first Cambodian telecom company to offer 4G/WiMAX services, mobile backhaul services, IPLC/DPLC connections, and Ethernet Business Line services to the rapidly-expanding Cambodian market.

To achieve this, it will cooperate with BTI to deploy the BTI 7000 Series platform and pair it with a high-capacity 10G metro Ethernet ring. In addition, EMAXX will be employing the MEF-certified BTI 700 Series to offer a complete range of Ethernet services, such as E-LINE and E-LAN. The proNX Service Management Suite will handle service configuration for both systems.

The new EMAXX system is set for a tentative debut in the capital city of Phnom Penh.

The market for data and mobile services in Cambodia has grown in leaps and bounds. It has also become very competitive. There were nine mobile operators by 2011, and by 2012 it was estimated that those nine operators -including EMAXX- are providing services for 13 million mobile subscribers.