Wired Backhaul for Small Cells Shows Diversity

June 11, 2014

By Ernest Worthman —

iGR Research has just released a study about wired backhaul for North American LTE metrocell small cell deployments. The consensus from the survey is that “Wired backhaul deployments will vary significantly due to the diversity of small cell locations.” The report comes to this conclusion, and rightfully so, that, because the locations of small cell deployments vary so greatly, there is no single solution to how they will be backhauled.

That shouldn’t be news to anyone who has their ear to the small cell rail. What I do find interesting in these reports is that they explain a lot about the processes that lead to the finale. For example, the reports states that “When operators choose backhaul methods for small cells, they go through a decision chain that balances current need (coverage versus capacity and the bandwidth requirements) against cost (and total cost of ownership), payback period and future scalability.” It seems that the operators who responded also said that fiber is the first choice for small cell backhaul.

The report goes on to list a number of result metrics such as why fiber is the platform of choice (throughput, low latency, better scaling, etc.), the installation pros and cons of fiber versus other platforms (wireless, HFC, VDSL2, etc.), initial cost and ROI. The report also contains iGR’s North American forecast for wired backhaul to support LTE small cell deployments over the next five years.

The following key questions are addressed in study:

What is the anticipated growth of wired backhaul in North America through 2018?

How do the major mobile operators view wired backhaul?

What are the major concerns of the mobile operators, with regard to wired backhaul?

How can these concerns be addressed?

What is the role for wired backhaul in small cell architectures?

How is wired backhaul deployed?

What are the attractions and drawbacks of wired backhaul for the mobile operators?

The market study, “Wired Backhaul Opportunities and Issues for Small Cell Architectures,” can be purchased and downloaded directly from iGR’s website

(www.igr-inc.com) providing immediate access to a digital copy of the research.