The Wireless Industry’s Dirty Little Secret

Not a Panacea

Ethernet is seen as the answer to the backhaul dilemma, but there are drawbacks to it as well. Only in February did the Metro Ethernet Forum implement a blueprint, known as “MEF 22,” for using the technology to hook up cellular networks. And LTE, the forthcoming “4G” standard for wireless broadband networks that will strain backhaul systems even further, is not even included in the new plan. “LTE will need to get folded in later;” reported Light Reading, and “it's still not even clear how difficult that will be.”

And while Ethernet offers more capacity and reliability than existing T1 lines, it’s not a panacea. “People associate Ethernet with large pipes and capacity,” Scott Sumner, the VP of marketing at Accedian Networks, said in an email, “but the bandwidth available to a cell site depends on how much is provisioned.”

Today’s 3G towers are typically provisioned with a 10Mbps link, which is a lot – it equates to around seven T1s – but not always sufficient given the “bursty” nature of mobile broadband traffic, particularly for streaming video. When data traffic surges faster than operators have planned for, those links can be overwhelmed quickly.

There’s no quick fix for this problem; it will require billions in new infrastructure investment. Complicating matters in this country is the fact that, unlike mobile operators in Europe and Asia, U.S. carriers typically don’t own their backhaul networks: They lease them from wireline carriers, who have their own infrastructure priorities and don’t always view the situation with the same urgency as the mobile providers – or their users.

One release valve may come in the form of wireless backhaul nets. Recent weeks have seen new backhaul solutions from providers including DragonWave, Exalt Communications, and Bridgewave Communications, which at CTIA debuted a new 80-Ghz radio that aggregates traffic from multiple base stations over a 1.5-Gbps connection.

In every crisis there’s an opportunity. Long term, this shortage will be solved by supply and demand. But excited purchasers of snazzy new iPhones, G1s, and Nokia N Series smartphones will not be so excited when their video applications start fritzing out in the next year or so.