Huawei Technologies

2005.10 8
 How to Operate
Mobile backhaul strategies for emerging markets

Mobile backhaul strategies

for emerging markets
Emerging markets have become an intense battleground for multinational mobile operators with their strategy to enlarge
their global footprint. These operators are facing enormous challenges to build the backhaul networks with their TCO
efficient and quick time-to-market strategy. This article identifies the challenges to build these backhaul networks and
recommends the potential solutions from a technical and business perspective.

By Madhav Bhatta

Backhaul challenges and

strategies

T
D M - b a s e d a r c h i t e c t u re h a s
traditionally met the requirements
of 2G operators. Several major
operators such as Vodafone, FT/
Orange, Etisalat, MTN and Zain are still
investing heavily in the expansion of their
2G mobile networks. Thus, the increase in
traffic volumes and the pressure of new service
deployment demand an exponential growth of
bandwidth on backhaul networks.
The gradual migration from 2G to 3G will
definitely lead to long term co-existence of the
two networks, which in turn poses a challenge
in backhaul to support the multi-service
transport requirement for a longer duration.
This leads to a requirement to bear native
TDM services, plus TDM + Ethernet services
and IP in the future.
Operators in this case, bear a high cost for
capacity expansion in SDH networks, leased
lines and microwave equipment. This leads
to a need to improve transmission media to
accommodate the increased service demands.
Mobile operators are facing considerable
operational challenges as they seek to
maintain their existing networks with multiple
backhaul technologies, including PDH&SDH
Microwave, SDH multiplexers, and regional
WDM technologies. The evolution to 3G
backhaul creates additional hurdles that lead

29 JUN 2009 . ISSUE 50


to high TCO in the short- and long-term.
The main challenges that increase the
TCO of 2G operators on their existing
backhaul networks are analyzed below.
Challenges on stacking many
boxes
Approximately 80% of existing
backhaul networks comprise legacy PDH,
SDH microwave links and multiplexers
stacking many PDH, SDH boxes in
coexisting sites. This increases the CAPEX
as well as operational difficulties.
Existing TDM backhaul modes may
meet immediate day-to-day requirements.
However, in the event of adding more
subscribers or even migrating to 3G, there
will be a need to rebuild or introduce a
new backhaul technology, leading to more
boxes within the network to sustain the
increased traffic. It would then become
difficult to have an overview of the whole
network. In addition, the problem of
maintenance as well as efficient media
transfer could also arise.
Nevertheless, a series of steps exist to
address these problems.
• Reduce complexity via unified
solution
Huawei intends to solve operators’
complexity arising out of stacking many
boxes in their networks with flexible
s o l u t i o n e q u i p p e d w i t h d i ve r s i f i e d
interfaces in an integrated solution. The
existing stack of SDH boxes can be easily
replaced by a single highly integrated
MSTP platform.
Fo r e x a m p l e , M S T P b o x e s a n d
microwave indoor units (IDUs) support
integrated microwave and optical
networking features. Microwave RF card
is pluggable to either of these boxes.
Hence, there is no requirement for MUX
and DDF in Hub Sites, and no cabling
is required. These features ensure higher
reliability, flexible networking, faster
service provisioning, and less equipment.
• Support all backhaul scenarios to
avoid stacking
Given the long-term nature of 2G,
3G, and HSPA co-existence, the backhaul
solution should be applicable in diversified
scenarios to avoid stacking boxes. To meet
the growing demand of 3G services, ATM
IMA can be plugged within the same box
thus avoiding stacking of ATM switches.
Native E1, IMA E1, and FE interfaces at
cell sites offer seamless access of cell sites
and network aggregation. On the RNC
side, a single piece of equipment can
support STM-N, ATM STM-N, and FE/
GE interfaces to cover all the scenarios of
RNC-side aggregation.
Each of these features needs to support
card level expansion to enable faster
deployment and realize the rapid TTM
requirement of cellular networks. Directly
upgrading from an existing system incurs
less CAPEX and is easier to deploy. A
single network management system (NMS)
operates the whole network with less
O&M demands, and thus less manpower.
Daily network operation
challenges
In 2007, Huawei had an opportunity
to join with FT/Orange to analyze the
TCO for emerging markets targeted by
30+ Orange affiliates. The major findings
revealed that the excessive OPEX was
derived from managing different network
platforms; in particular the cumulative
costs associated with human resources,
power consumption, and floorspace.
It is extremely difficult to locate failures
across multiple network management
platforms that lack both E2E provisioning
and unified performance monitoring
mechanism as it makes the troubleshooting
extremely complex and cause high OSS
integration costs.
In medium-level operators’ networks,
thousands of alarms are generated daily
by backhaul equipment. However, alarm
correlation techniques to determine faults
over multiple network platforms such as
microwave, SDH, etc., are absent. This
delays rectification of faults. The need to
maintain multiple maintenance teams
of engineers without a unified NMS
will hamper quick fault detection and
have adverse effects on the OPEX of the
operator.
Operators can take a number of
measures in terms of simplifying
operations and reducing O&M costs.
Huawei Communicate
Some of the measures that could be looked
into are:
• One NMS for one backhaul
One unified NMS for each backhaul
greatly simplifies daily operations. The
solution features a complete point-and-
click function that defines traffic routes
between BTSs/Node Bs and RNCs/BSCs.
It avoids multi-segment provisioning
t o re d u c e re p e a t e d a d d i t i o n a l l i n k
configurations.
The NMS covers up for all equipment
such as SDH, MSTP, WDM, microwave
and even packet backhaul, to reduce the
cost in maintaining different teams with
separate products.
• Accelerated troubleshooting
Rapid troubleshooting is a key focus
for major operators aiming to reduce the
numbers of site-visits, minimize network
interruptions, and implement preventive
maintenance. Multi-segment configuration
is the major factor that increases on-
site engineering tasks and hinders failure
location.
However, simply deploying a single
unified NMS is insufficient; an alarm
correlation system is necessary to clarify
fault definitions throughout the network.
Alarm correlation DB uses aggregation
rules to generate root and non-root
alarms, and can suppress 90% of the non-
root alarms to quickly locate the root
causes. Ethernet layer OAM also assists in
monitoring E2E service connectivity and
links status.
• Fewer on-site visits
Cellular networking is growing very
fast, requiring quick rollout of mobile
base stations. This brings the need for
regular capacity adjustment, upgrade and
optimization. Hence, field engineering
becomes another important aspect of
operational challenges. This situation can
be ameliorated by flexibly configuring
E 1 , I M A E 1 , a n d F E t h r o u g h c a rd
level, software programmable radio
(microwaves), and a built-in add-drop
mechanism.
Moreover, field visits can be further
reduced by using the hot patch technology
JUN 2009 . ISSUE 50 30
 How to Operate
Mobile backhaul strategies for emerging markets
to fix bugs, online software to remotely upgrade
NEs, and the NMS to monitor remote optical
power. The point-and-click and E2E provisioning
also eases the burden of site-by-site configuration,
previously shouldered by engineers.
• Cut inventory and spare parts
Unified hardware and software makes all service
cards compatible with the products applied to core
sites for access and aggregation. When configured for
specified distances, the flexible SFP pluggable optical
module reduces the expenditure on spare parts,
and the same principle applies to microwave IDUs,
ODUs, antennas, and RF couplers. These features
can be combined to minimize the TCO network-
wide.
Cost of reality & future challenges
2G mobile operators are confronted with the
challenges of finding effective ways to evolve to 3G/
HSPA while lowering OPEX and CAPEX. The
optimum choice must involve minimum costs and
reuse of existing network resources to bear legacy
services, provide 3G/HSPA services, and ensure
seamless future expansion capabilities. Predictably,
the various potential solutions lack clarity and pose
great challenges for operators.
For example, increasing investment in legacy
ser vice provision with the hope of a delayed
migration to all packet platforms in the future is
broadly a short-term expedient.
On the other hand, rushing to acquire a nascent
technology that applies to a separate IP platform
will not only incur a high and immediate CAPEX,
but also pose operational problems for teams who
are currently accustomed to legacy microwave and
SDH networks. In terms of emerging markets, the
latter approach requires specialized and highly skilled
networking experts, who are currently very few in
the market.
The overlapping nature of legacy and nascent
technologies raises questions for operators regarding
when, how and which technology to apply, to realize
backhaul for the new RAN.
Huawei’s recommended strategy is based on the
unified solution that simultaneously supports TDM
and packet to seamlessly transport 2G and 3G or
HSPA data services. We recommend the evolution
strategy rather than revolution. This means the
smooth evolution from MSTP to MSTP+ solution
is proposed instead of the need to build an overlay
network.
At the cell site gateway, TDM microwave network
can be smoothly upgraded to hybrid microwave
31 JUN 2009 . ISSUE 50
to achieve seamless Ethernet access. This can be
achieved by simply adding RF cards into the existing
RTN equipment. The upgraded solutions can
effectively utilize the same IDU and ODU and can
access services such as IMA, TDM and Ethernet.
MSTP+ and hybrid microwave can be smoothly
evolved by replacing cards that enable rapid
deployment and rollout of 3G networks. This saves
considerable CAPEX and OPEX, as well as enables
the operator to recoup ROI on legacy investments.
E2E backhaul solution for
emerging markets
In the technical context of 2G/3G coexistence
and the backdrop of continual network and service
evolution, Huawei has designed its solution to meet
current requirements and seamlessly evolve into
future pure packet platform architecture.
From the perspective of strategic business
models, Huawei’s TCO analysis report maintains
that operators’ primary goal rests in achieving TCO
reductions. In this sense, the MSTP-based solution
is irrefutably cost-effective, suitable for different
application scenarios, and simplifies O&M.
Huawei proposed its mobile IP RAN backhaul
solution to respond to the current dominance of
TDM traffic in 2G networks, the massive amount of
data involved with 3G services, and the inevitability
of future All-IP migration. The solution also
incorporates legacy TDM strengths–such as OAM,
performance monitoring, and so on–to maintain the
operational experience of existing operation teams
without requiring CCIE networking expertise.
In the light of the various challenges in the
emerging markets, Huawei has considered a multi-
layer TCO reduction approach to systematically
reduce OPEX and CAPEX.
Following Huawei’s technical and economic
analysis and discussions with numerous operators
regarding emerging markets, FT/Orange, China
Mobile, China Unicom Beijing, StarHub Singapore,
Digi Malaysia, Excelcom Indonesia, Wind Italy &
Orascom Group, and MTN plan to implement
Huawei’s solution in their networks.
As a leader in E2E mobile backhaul solution,
Huawei is well-placed to confidently overcome the
challenges faced by 2G operators in running existing
networks, and evolving to 3G network. Huawei
believes that the proposed solution will eventually
bring a 30% to 40% reduction in TCO.
Editor: Joy Zhou zhouhj@huawei.com