Microwave Backhauling - Meeting the Capacity Challenges of 4G/LTE and Beyond

Abstract
Demand for backhaul capacity continues to rise as consumers get accustomed to using more data and video services from their mobile devices. Deployments of 4th generation LTE mobile networks are poised to boost that demand even more and promise to deliver customers a wireline experience in their wireless networks. In light of these phenomena operators are asking themselves what will be the proper backhaul technology to deliver the ever growing capacity demand. Though microwave does not have the ultimate capacity of fiber, we will show how it is still far ahead of the capacity-demand curve. More formally, we will reveal microwaves ability to handle capacity requirements of next-generation LTE and LTE-advanced networks. We will also show how microwave enjoys the advantages of superior flexibility, durability and faster time to deployment that lead to lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and faster time to revenue than its fiber alternative.

Capacity Demand Trends

The growing capabilities of handsets are fueling an explosion of data activity on the mobile network. Subscribers increasingly use their handsets to obtain more real-time services. Streaming audio and video, on-line gaming, real-time news and traffic reports, public safety and numerous other applications are being adopted and regularly used by millions of subscribers. The demand for backhaul capacity on the mobile network continues to escalate unceasingly.

Mobile backhaul capacity demand per cell site in Mbps (source: Heavy-Reading October 2011)

TECHNICAL BRIEF | Microwave Backhauling - Meeting the Capacity Challenges of 4G/LTE and Beyond

This capacity demand is set to jump further as mobile operators roll out their 4th-generation LTE networks. LTE provides myriad benefits to subscribers who no doubt will use their LTEready mobile handsets the same way they are using their desktop computers and access far greater quantities of data in real time.

LTE deployments are expected to accelerate (Source: Mobile Experts)

These two trends point to an unabated, significant demand for capacity on the networks backhaul.

Microwave vs. Fiber for Backhaul

Traditionally, mobile network operators chose between fiber, microwave and copper based leased line to meet their backhaul requirements. Each technology has its advantages and disadvantages. As copper lines are no longer considered a relevant medium for future networks, mainly due to harsh capacity restrictions and no sound advantages over fiber or microwave, the only LTE and LTE-Advanced backhaul alternatives are fiber and microwave.

TECHNICAL BRIEF | Microwave Backhauling - Meeting the Capacity Challenges of 4G/LTE and Beyond

Microwave vs. other technologies in the backhaul

Fiber Fiber has virtually unlimited capacity and thus can be expected to furnish the backhaul network with all the capacity that it could demand well into the future. It is the industrys consensus that backhauls large aggregation and core segments should be deployed over fiber to support capacity requirements in 10s of Gbps. However, the requirements of tail sites and pre-aggregation segments, i.e. from the cell towers to the first fiber aggregation, do not make such a demand for capacity and can enjoy significant improvement by microwave implementations. Where fiber is easy and cost-effective to deploy, where it need not be sourced from competitors, and where it is not liable to breakage or damage after deployment, it can be a good choice. However, when fiber is not available (due to geography, no right-of-way approvals etc) too costly or too time consuming to deploy - microwave is the optimal alternative.

Typical LTE Backhaul Network Layout (Source: NGMN)

TECHNICAL BRIEF | Microwave Backhauling - Meeting the Capacity Challenges of 4G/LTE and Beyond

Microwave The benefits of microwave are numerous and well known. Microwave is scalable. It is quick and inexpensive to deploy. It is highly reliable. It does not suffer from cessations in service due to cable breaks. And last, but not least, it is a viable solution as it meets the current and future capacity demand. For all of these reasons, microwave is an ideal medium for tail sites and the pre-aggregation segments in backhaul networks. More so, In light of the current economic turmoil, as we cannot expect very costly and large nation-wide fiber deployments (that were popular in the late 90s) microwave is expected to have a renesans period and flourish in LTE and LTE-Advanced backhaul.

Microwave Capacity
More than half of the LTE networks currently deployed in the world use microwave in their backhaul. This categorically proves that mobile operators believe microwave can meet the nextgeneration networks capacity requirements. For now lets disregard this fact and present the actual LTE and LTE-Advanced capacity requirements. According to the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN1) alliance, a typical LTE macro tail site (also known as TriCell as it covers 3 sectors) requires about 135 Mbps downstream capacity2. This number is also backed by recent survey done among mobile operators that already deployed LTE networks3. Using a standard dimensioning formula that considers peak and average backhaul capacity usage in busy times and in quiet times, the NGMN had also provided guidelines for the pre-aggregation backhaul demands4. For example, if we will consider an extreme scenario of a microwave link that aggregates as much as 20 tail sites, we will receive a backhaul requirement of 1.5Gbps for LTE networks5. As providing capacity for LTE is certainly not an issue, it is done in such networks deployed today, lets examine the future backhaul demands expected in 2018-2020 with LTE-Advanced (true 4G). Though LTE-Advanced figures are mainly speculative, the industry rule-of-thumb for

1 2

For more on NGMN see http://www.ngmn.org/ NGMN, Guidelines for LTE backhaul traffic estimation, July 2011. 3 Maravedis, A practical look at LTE backhaul capacity requirements, July 2011. 4 NGMN dimensioning guidelines: (Max {peak, N x busy time mean}) 5 At 28MHz channel, assuming 135 Mbps peak and 86Mbps busy-time mean for downlink capacity.

TECHNICAL BRIEF | Microwave Backhauling - Meeting the Capacity Challenges of 4G/LTE and Beyond

tail-site backhaul is 1Gbps6. If well keep the tail - pre-aggregation ratio we have used for the LTE, which is 1:10, well conclude that pre-aggregation segment should support 10Gbps backhauling.

LTE & LTE-Advanced capacity backhaul requirements

There are bundle of capabilities that advanced microwave systems have that enable us to satisfy the above requirements. Available high modulation schemes can already deliver 250 Mbps over common 28MHz/30MHz channel and thus support the LTE requirements for tailsites. With advanced traffic-boosting techniques, such as header compression, co-channel dual polarization (CCDP) with XPIC technology, and eventually multi-carrier schemes, we can easily reach the 1.5Gbps capacity requirements in the networks pre-aggregation segment. Already in advanced development and trials procedures, next-generation technology, such as MIMO, can easily enable us to reach the future LTE-Advanced required capacities. Accompanied to the new technology, regulators are now authorizing use of larger channels and new spectrum that also boost the capacity delivery. At the end-of-the-day, it is a large tool-box of capacity and spectrum related attributes that will enable us to deliver the LTEAdvanced requirements.

Heavy-Reading, that was one of the first research companies to indicate this number, claimed that 1Gbps is expected only in 5% of tail-sites that will support RAN sharing. IMT-Advanced standard ultimate goal for next-generation mobile networks is to provide 1Gbps capacity for low-mobility devices only. TECHNICAL BRIEF | Microwave Backhauling - Meeting the Capacity Challenges of 4G/LTE and Beyond

Capacity Tool-Box for reaching LTE-Advanced requirements

Our confident in microwave ability to meet the future capacity demands is based not only on pure spectrum and technological related advances but also on the main reasons behind microwave past successes to satisfy the base-station requirements. From the 2G and 2.5G era, where only several E1s/DS1s were needed, to the 3G and 3.5G era where more E1s and several dozens of Mbps were needed, Microwave always delivered the radio access network (RAN) demanded capacity. This is not a surprise. As the industry struggled to deliver more capacity to the RAN, bottlenecks in that part of the networks were resolved with similar tools to those used in microwave backhauling. This phenomenon is clear since technology tend to migrate between network segments that are using the same medium. We are expecting technology migration between the two sides of the cell-sites (toward the mobile devices via the RAN and toward the network core via the backhaul) to continue for years to come.

Microwave backhauling met previous generations base-station requirements

In the 4G/LTE era, the RAN access is gaining new spectrum, new-channel bandwidth and other capacity related capabilities such as MIMO. All these will result in the RAN making considerable additional capacity demands on the backhaul. Using similar technologies and by getting access to more spectrum, the microwave based mobile backhaul will keeps up with RAN demand for capacity.

TECHNICAL BRIEF | Microwave Backhauling - Meeting the Capacity Challenges of 4G/LTE and Beyond

Technology and Spectrum related progress on both sides of the cellular antenna

Spectral efficiency is another place where the RAN is gaining ground rapidly. Since the deployment of UMTS (WCDMA) 3G networks, radio access networks have increased their spectral efficiency some 30 times. The spectral efficiency of microwave has kept pace and will do so in the future.

Spectral efficiency advances in RAN access and Microwave backhauling

3.5G and LTE bring huge spectrum utilization benefits to microwave backhaul based on advanced wireless technologies. As time goes by, microwave point-to-point backhaul spectral efficiency maintains its progression in parallel with the radio access network. We should expect continue of this momentum in the future.

TECHNICAL BRIEF | Microwave Backhauling - Meeting the Capacity Challenges of 4G/LTE and Beyond

Microwaves Additional Advantages

As we have seen, microwave will have no problem maintaining its significant edge over capacity demand. Microwave brings other considerable advantages as well that lead to lower Total cost of ownership (TCO) and faster time to revenue. 1. COST: The cost of trenching and deploying fiber is a function of distance. Fiber is very expensive relative to establishing microwave links. In Greenfield mobile deployments, whether new networks or expansions into new areas, there is a distinct and considerable advantage in cost to microwave.

TCO of fiber and 150Mbit/s microwave backhaul links in urban areas [Source: Analysys Mason, 2011]

Even leased fiber is far more expensive than microwave

TECHNICAL BRIEF | Microwave Backhauling - Meeting the Capacity Challenges of 4G/LTE and Beyond

2. Flexibility: Microwave is far more flexible than fiber. Links can be re-used as topology changes. Frequently, mobile operators must re-design parts of their backhaul networks especially in large urban areas where usage trends are changing. Microwaves flexibility provides an easy solution.

Major bottleneck

Bottleneck off-loaded and relieved

3. Durability: Microwave is more durable than fiber. When fiber is cut, service is lost. A citywide fiber network has many points to traverse with numerous switches and routers for data to arrive at the destination. If any of these points should break, the network or portions thereof are lost. It can be very costly and time-consuming to locate and replace the fiber and its points-of-failure. Microwave equipment supporting Automatic Coding and Modulation (ACM) technology allows the microwave link to use lower modulations automatically when link status deteriorates. The link maintains availability and returns to full capacity automatically as soon as conditions permit. 4. Speed of deployment: While there can be serious right-of-way issues for fiber deployment causing delays and adding expenses, microwave are easy to install and commission. More so, in some cases, fiber is really not a feasible option due to terrain mountains, swamps, etc. in other cases, in urban areas, fiber deployments require a lot of efforts, stop of traffic, reconstruction etc.

TECHNICAL BRIEF | Microwave Backhauling - Meeting the Capacity Challenges of 4G/LTE and Beyond

Summary
Microwave meets the demands of 2G, 3G, 3.5G and 4G networks today. Its capacity is already in the Gbps range and its growing rapidly. As it did in the past, it will keep track with the RAN access capacity demands by using the same (slightly modified) RAN wireless techniques and by utilizing larger chunks of the spectrum. As LTE networks proliferate, we should expect a microwave renesans period. This is especially true in light of the emerging trend to deploy small cells, the tiny cellular sites that require cost-effective, easy installment and flexible backhaul technology. Microwave and fiber should not be considered competing technologies but complimentary technologies as the former enables operators to reach locations that, for various reasons, the later cannot. Even when fiber is deployed, microwave is the option of choice to protect the fiber against loss of service scenarios as it can handle traffic while the fiber is down. Microwave also bares some other advantages. It is flexible, durable, faster to deploy and certainly cheaper than the fiber alternative. These advantages enable operators to reduce their TCO and reach their revenue goals faster compare to other transport alternatives.

ABOUT CERAGON Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ: CRNT) is the premier wireless backhaul specialist. Ceragon provides high capacity LTE/4G wireless backhaul solutions that enable cellular operators and other wireless service providers to deliver voice and data services, enabling smart-phone applications such as Internet browsing, music and video. With unmatched technology and cost innovation, Ceragons advanced point-topoint microwave systems allow wireless service providers to evolve their networks from circuit-switched and hybrid concepts to all IP networks. Ceragon solutions are designed to support all wireless access technologies, delivering more capacity over longer distances under any given deployment scenario. Ceragons solutions are deployed by more than 200 service providers of all sizes, and hundreds of private networks in more than 130 countries. Visit Ceragon at www.ceragon.com.

TECHNICAL BRIEF | Microwave Backhauling - Meeting the Capacity Challenges of 4G/LTE and Beyond

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