Cell Life

Attended a webinar today on Mobile backhaul networks conducted by Wireless Week magazine (www.wirelessweek.com). There is plenty of debate on what kind of backhaul works best for emerging 4G wireless techs ie WiMAX or LTE. Folks from Juniper and France Telecom/Orange and some others argue that an IP/MPLS (Multi-protocol Label Switching) backbone is a great solution for a broadband mobile backhaul. Their reasoning :

• MPLS is good mobile back haul for 2G, 3G,  LTE and WIMAX with both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic
  • Supports flexible connectivity and configuration models
• MPLS is future proof due to its flexibility
  • Can support whatever 4G networks come up with
• Mobile backhaul requires flexibility due to other reasons as well
  • Many technologies co-exist
  • Multiple deployment scenarios co-exist

MPLS has delivered in landline networks. It is adaptable and hence a good candidate for mobile backhaul. One does not know how mobile backhaul evolves so it is better to position a flexible tech like MPLS for mobile backhaul to accommodate the various configurations which 4G folks come up with.

Our take - Juniper and similar firms have invested heavily in MPLS equipment, so this standard fits them naturally. If we talked to the WiMAX equipment folks, they would like a wireless WiMAX-based backhaul. Fiber manufacturers would like a predominance of a fiber-based backhaul. Really, all of these are viable backhaul solutions.

MT