Operators need the right commercial and technical approach to mobile backhaul to manage the challenges of convergence, flexibility and cost-effectiveness. IP/Ethernet in combination with high-capacity microwave, fiber or VDSL2 links will substantially decrease the cost per transported bit.

	Ethernet microwave transport

Packet-based microwave equipment can provide the capacity needed for Gigabit Ethernet transport utilizing high-order modulation, a combination of multiple radios, and channel sharing with interference cancellation. New spectrum allocations can also be exploited for high-capacity transport. Millimeter-wave radios for point-to-point (P2P) applications will be able to further increase the capacity of each microwave radio to more than 1Gbps. Optical access technologies are able to handle very high demand for bandwidth. Together with new and emerging solutions for bonded digital subscriber line (DSL) links, they will make it possible to adapt mobile backhaul networks to varying demand levels using the existing infrastructure.

Second-generation very-high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL2) in combination with bonding and vectoring can increase the capacity of DSL links. This aggregation of multiple lines creates a high-speed virtual pipe. These technologies are best for an all-IP RAN over a carrier Ethernet network optimized for data traffic.

The architecture for Ethernet service backhaul consists of IP-capable RAN nodes with native Ethernet interfaces to the transport network. The transport network provides a Layer 2 or Layer 3 VPN service, which the RAN nodes perceive as Ethernet or IP layer connectivity. The transport network services are implemented over Ethernet or Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks, or a combination of these. The solution is compatible with Full Service Broadband architecture which provides a consistent, multi-layer User to Network Interface (UNI) connecting end users to next-generation service delivery platforms by combining fixed and mobile access technologies.