Small Cell backhaul
Canada East Commtech Show
Charles Ribordy
April 2014
Drivers for network change to Heterogeneous
networks
2018…
5 – 10 Mbps expected
‘everywhere’
4x – 12x traffic in metropolitan
areas
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 2
Our understanding of the
challenges…
›  High Relative TCO
›  Backhaul can be >50% of the TCO due to:
›  Installation costs to buy or build.
›  MRC for spectrum, pole attachment and site lease.
›  Need fast a TTM, with minimal administrative costs.
›  Choosing Among Diverse Options
›  Fiber, Copper, Coax, LOS/NLOS, licensed/unlicensed,
›  Need to limit the number of options to simplify the network
topology
›  Defining Performance Criteria
›  How good is good enough, today and in the future?
›  Throughput, latency, jitter packet loss etc
›  Requirements for Video, VoLTE, LTE Advanced and App
Support.
›  Complex Planning and Engineering
›  Asset availability, fiber, (lit vs dark), microwave link planning
›  Site acquisition, municipal permits, license applications
›  Planning & prediction tools for microwave.
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 3
Keys for affordable small cells
Typical cost structure per site
100
Power
O&M
Site rental
Tranmission OPEX
Transmission CAPEx
Roll-out
Site equipment
BS equipment (HW+SW)
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Co-sited New macro Micro
LTE
macro
New
Micro
upgrade
macro
(Outdoor)
Indoor p.
Pico
(Indoor)
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 4
Backhaul IS the Business Case
Total cost of ownership - MNO
›  Mobile Network Operator TCO tool to
model various Small Cell BH options.
›  Considering growing capacity demand
over five years and avg. hop length.
›  What is the TCO of fiber leasing vs.
Wireless Microwave.
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 5
Small cell types
POWER
VENUE
INDOOR
20W+
DAS
Up to 64 Users
Pico Cell
1W
70%
4 – 6 Users
10 mW
32 to 200 Users
Micro RBS (GigE)
Micro RRU (CPRI)
5W
250mW
OUTDOOR
16 – 32 Users
30%
PA Femto
Enterprise
Femto
Residential
Femto
Backhaul to Femto GW
3G (Iuh)
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 6
Backhaul to Mobile Core
3G (Iub), LTE (S1/X2)
Macro
Cell
Small cell portfolio
RADIO DOT
RBS 6501
GigE
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 7
mRRUS
CPRI
RBS 6401 GigE
Wi-Fi
backhaul options
Fiber Options
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 8
Wireless Options
Fiber
Backhaul (gige) vs. fronthaul (cpri)
mRRU
CPRI
Backhaul (GigE)
Mobile
Core
mRBS
Macro
Radio Base Station
Backhaul (GigE)
Fronthaul (CPRI)
mRRU
Mobile
Core
Digital Unit
(or Baseband Unit)
Remote Radio
Fronthaul (CPRI)
Mobile
Core
mRRU
Remote Radio
Baseband Hotel
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 9
CPRI Line Rates
•  (1) 614 Mbit/s
•  (2) 1.2 Gbit/s
•  (3) 2.5 Gbit/s
•  (4) 3.0 Gbit/s
•  (5) 5.0 Gbit/s
•  (6) 6.1 Gbit/s
•  (7) 9.8 Gbit/s
cpri + ge mux OVER DaRK FIBER
›  Up to 15 km to furthest RRU.
›  Managed OADM for demarc.
mRRU
AIR
GSM
mRRU+WiFi
AIR
GSM
AIR
GSM
›  Ring protection optional (50ms)
›  Supports CPRI (up to 10 Gig)
MACRO
›  Supports GigE and 10 GigE
›  Up to four nodes, ring or chain.
Baseband Site
Certified for Ericsson Radios
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 10
Wireless Small cell backhaul
Sub 6 GHz
Unlicenced
60GHz
Unlicenced
PtMP
MINI-LINK PT
28 to 80 GHz
Licenced
MINI-LINK PT
250 Mbps
Aggregate
PtP
200 Mbps
Aggregate
300 Mbps
Full Duplex
MINI-LINK PT
Small Form Factor, All Outdoor, Packet Transport
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 11
28 – 39Ghz
350 Mbps
Full Duplex
70/80 GHz
1 Gbps
Full Duplex
Non-line-of-sight Microwave Backhaul
Small cell backhaul
›  Few 100 meters distance
›  Very compact antennas
›  LOS and NLOS needed
Rethink NLOS backhaul !
› 
› 
› 
› 
Bands above 20 GHz work well for NLOS
200-400 Mbps full duplex.
Directional antennas are key
Successful field trial with major US operator.
MINI-LINK advantages
High system gain
Superior antennas
Advanced equalizer
MINI-LINK Microwave as a complementary NLOS solution
Due to High Gain and Directional Antennas
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 12
Alternate business models
›  Lightpole designed to house small
cells, power and backhaul.
›  Municipality owns the pole and
leases “radome” enclosure space
to wireless operator.
›  Fixed operator provides power and
backhaul to the pole.
›  “One stop shop” for the wireless
operator (Backhaul, Power &
Enclosure)
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 13
BEFORE
AFTER
Summary – key takeaways
•  For small cells, especially outdoor, Backhaul IS the Business Case.
•  No one silver bullet – Fiber (CPRI Mux) alongside with Wireless Backhaul (NLOS) as a toolkit
•  A winning proposition will be a one stop shop – Backhaul, Power and Space
•  Key is multi party partnership amongst asset owners - Fiber, Spectrum, Space & Services
•  New business models between traditional Backhaul Providers and Cities/Municipalities
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 14
Canada East Commtech Show | Commercial in confidence | 2013-12-04 | Page 15