A Practical Look at LTE Backhaul Capacity Requirements

1. A Practical Look at LTE Backhaul Capacity
Requirements
Esteban Monturus
Backhaul Market Analyst
esteban@maravedis-bwa.com
January 13th, 2011
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2. Agenda
! Backhaul Capacity
Requirements of LTE
! Backhaul Capacity Discussion
! How Microwave meets Backhaul
Capacity Needs of LTE
! Backhaul Trends among LTE
Operators
! Q&A
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3. Backhaul Capacity Requirements
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4. Mobile Data Trends
Monthly data consumption Mobile broadband subscriber base
Operator Country Traffic/User
TeliaSonera Sweden and
14 GB
(LTE) Norway
Yota
Russia 13 GB
(WiMAX)
Packet One
Networks Malaysia 10 GB
(WiMAX)
Clearwire
US 7 GB
(WiMAX)
SK Telecom
Korea 7 GB
(HSPA)
CSL (HSPA) Hong Kong 6 GB
Average Monthly Data Consumption
Source: 4GCounts Service
Source: 4GCounts Service
Princing plans Network capacity, new deployments
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5. Deployment Trends
Commercial Channel
Operator Country
! 147 LTE committed Launch bandwidth
operators at the end TeliaSonera Sweden 12/2009 2 x 20 MHz
of 2010
TeliaSonera Norway 12/2009 2 x 20 MHz
! Long Term HSPA TeliaSonera Finland 11/2010 2 x 20 MHz
Evolution as TeliaSonera Denmark 12/2010 2 x 20 MHz
alternative Telenor and
Sweden 11/2010 2 x 20 MHz
Tele2
! Currently 11 LTE
Vodafone Germany 12/2010 2 x 10 MHz
networks in
commercial operation From 2 x 1.4
MetroPCS USA 09/2010 MHz to 2 x 10
! Main uses of LTE MHz
Verizon USA 12/2010 2 x 10 MHz
! High capacity Telekom
overlay Austria 10/2010 2 x 20 MHz
Austria
NTT
! Rural Internet DoCoMo
Japan 12/2010 2 x 20 MHz
access CSL Hong Kong 11/2010 2 x 10 MHz
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©
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6. LTE Site Capacity Requirements
! Operators are currently deploying 3GPP Rel. 8
! 10 or 20 MHz (2x2 downlink MIMO)
! 3-sector cell sites
! Peak rates never achieved due to
Mbps
! Interference
! Network load
! Final objective: IMT-Advanced (LTE-A)
Peak Peak 20 Average Average Average
Direction Peak 10 MHz
efficiency MHz efficiency 10 MHz 20 MHz
Rel. 8 1.73 bps/ 17.3 35.6
5 bps/Hz 50 Mbps 100 Mbps
Downlink Hz/cell Mbps Mbps
Rel. 8 1.52 bps/ 15.2 30.4
2.5 bps/Hz 25 Mbps 50 Mbps
Uplink Hz/cell Mbps Mbps
LTE-A 3 bps/Hz/
15 bps/Hz 150 Mbps 300 Mbps 30 Mbps 60 Mbps
Downlink* cell
LTE-A 6.75 bps/ 2.25 bps/ 22.5
67.5 Mbps 135 Mbps 45 Mbps
Uplink* Hz Hz/cell Mbps
* Spectral efficiency for indoor coverage, the most demanding situation
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7. Microwave for Aggregation
! Current microwave
technology allows
aggregation
! Statistical multiplexing
increases aggregation
capability in practice
! Bringing rings closer to last
mile enhances multiplexing
! Service-aware routing
doubles capacity
Source: Maravedis’ Wireless Backhaul from an All-IP Perspective Report – October 2010
TDM+packet
packet
LAST MILE AGGREGATION METRO
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8. Backhaul
Capacity
Discussion
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9. LTE Backhaul Trends
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10. Commercial LTE in Europe
! Europe: traditional microwave domain.
Backhaul
Operator Country
type
! TeliaSonera group
! LTE in urban areas, fiber available. TeliaSonera Sweden Fiber
! New LTE markets depend on backhaul TeliaSonera Norway Fiber
availability.
TeliaSonera Finland Fiber
! 100-150 Mbps capacity per site.
Telenor and
! Microwave not discarded. Sweden Fiber
Tele2
! Vodafone Germany Vodafone Germany Fiber
! Only rural deployment so far.
Telekom
! 49,800 kilometer of fiber optic cable. Austria Fiber
Austria
! Partnership with utility company RWE Source: 4GCounts Service
to use its fiber deployment.
! Telekom Austria
! 500 million euros investment to
connect 4,000 BSs by fiber (AirToFiber
marketing campaign).
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11. Commercial LTE in North America
! North America: traditional copper Operator Country
Backhaul
and fiber domain. type
Fiber +
! Verizon MetroPCS USA
microwave
! Verizon Global Wholesale Fiber +
provides fiber links for +3,500 Verizon USA
microwave
cell sites (25 states). Source: 4GCounts Service
! +100 Mbps fiber + microwave
links from alternative carriers
(CenturyLink, Conterra
Broadband, Duke Net,
FiberTower, PalmettoNet,
Paradigm Telecom, Qwest,
Telecom Transport
Management and USCarrier).
! Seeking tower and backhaul
owners for rural deployment.
! MetroPCS
! Ethernet services to cell sites
from FiberTower Corp.
FiberTower transport network
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12. Commercial LTE in APAC
Backhaul
Operator Country
type
! Japan, China, Korea and Hong NTT
Kong: traditional fiber domains. DoCoMo
Japan Fiber
! NTT DoCoMo CSL Hong Kong Microwave
Source: 4GCounts Service
! Using fiber-connected Remote
Radio Heads for improved
indoor coverage (all outdoor
and indoor versions). RRH
RRH
! Hong Kong CSL
Delay
! One of the few operators RRH difference
currently using microwave for 40 km max.
LTE backhaul.
! 100-170 Mbps capacity per
site.
WiMAX
WiMAX
LTE
LTE
LTE
Indoor rack
Source: 4GGear Service
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13. Why not Microwave for LTE backhaul?
! LTE footprint still too small, so
operators are finding fiber available
within the initial coverage area.
! Other backhaul means will be
necessary to achieve the required
quality of experience:
! Macrocell backhaul
! Microwave links (including
millimeter wave)
! Free Space Optics
! Small cell backhaul
! Non-line of sight wireless
backhaul
! Strand-mount (DOCSIS
backhaul)
! Remote Radio Heads (RRH)
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14. LTE BACKHAUL REQUIREMENTS
A REALITY CHECK
P E T E R C R O Y, S E N I O R N E T W O R K A R C H I T E C T, AV I AT N E T W O R K S
1

15. LTE Cell: Single User Throughput Estimates
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• IP packet throughput rates vary with RF channel bandwidth and user distance
from cell center
• Majority of handsets in a cell/sector are located within medium & far distance
from the cell center (>90% of cell coverage area)
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16. Estimating LTE Cell Backhaul Capacity
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• Typical macro cell tower hosts 3 LTE radio sectors
• Site backhaul capacity with overbooking factor (OBF) between 3 and 5
• Capacity includes 15% dynamic range margin for QoS
• Figures are already LTE high-end estimates, higher capacities through
reducing overbooking factor to 1 from 3
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17. Backhaul Capacity Trend: 10MHz LTE Channel
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18. Backhaul Topology Comparison for LTE
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19. Backhaul Capacity Example: Ring Architecture
• Six cell backhaul in dense urban area @50Mbps
• Multiple site packet capacity not simply sum of cell capacities
• Network recovers from any single link failure
70Mbps
50Mbps 100Mbps
150Mbps To/from
core network
50Mbps 70Mbps
50Mbps
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20. The LTE Hype Cycle
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21. LTE Capacity Conclusions
• LTE backhaul capacity needs are regularly over-stated
• Capacity is fixed per site and only determined by base
station technology
• The backhaul limit for a site will likely be ~150 Mbit/s
for a 10MHz LTE radio channel
• Only way to add more network capacity:
- Add more cell sites, upgrade to MIMO or increase the LTE channel
bandwidth
• Ring/Mesh topologies are best suited to cope with the
high capacity requirements
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22. HOW LICENSED MICROWAVE
MEETS THE BACKHAUL CAPACITY
NEEDS OF LTE
S T U A R T L I T T L E , D I R E C T O R O F M A R K E T I N G , AV I AT N E T W O R K S
9

23. Uncertainty can lead to bad backhaul choices
• Backhaul discussion often in
terms of hundreds of megabits or
even gigabits of capacity
• Just one in four mobile operators
have said that they understood
the requirements for LTE
backhaul
• This uncertainty could drive over-
investment for backhaul capacity
that is not needed within the
foreseeable future
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24. LTE Cell-Site Capacity
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25. Why pay for capacity you may never need?
• The total cost of building
or leasing fiber to the cell-
site far exceeds that of a
typical microwave
connection
• Over-building capacity
with fiber will waste an
enormous amount of
network investments
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26. The 3 Most Important Backhaul Decision Factors
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27. Microwave Capacity Expansion Options
• Native Ethernet transport
• Adaptive Modulation
• Adaptive Coding
• Ethernet Frame
suppression and
compression
• Capacity-doubling through
co-channel operation with
XPIC
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28. Microwave techniques for high capacity
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29. Co-Channel link capacity doubling
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30. Getting even more wireless capacity
• Diverse path network topologies
(rings/mesh)
• Lightly licensed and license free
60-90 GHz Millimeter wave
bands
• Payload compression
• Higher order modulation
schemes >256QAM
• Multi-carrier operation
• Multiple-in/Multiple-out (MIMO)
techniques
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31. Don’t let fiber break the bank!
• Fiber is not the only
answer for operators
deploying HSPA+ & LTE
• Operators need to balance
realistic capacity
expectations with total cost
• Microwave transport meets
the foreseeable capacity
needs for mobile backhaul
for several years to come
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32. WWW.AVIATNETWORKS.COM

33. Audience Poll #1
How realistic are the current LTE user
throughput expectations?
%
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34. Audience Poll #2
In the next 5 years, what proportion of new HSPA
+ and LTE cellsites will be connected by fiber?
%
%
%
%
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35. About 4Ggear:
The 4G Equipment Analysis Service
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36. Contact Information
410 rue des Recollets, Suite 301
Montreal, QC,
H2Y 1W2
CANADA
(305) 992-3196
(514) 313-5465
info@maravedis-bwa.com
www.maravedis-bwa.com
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