Telecom Lead India: Global mobile operators are facing
challenges to reduce their backhaul cost in order to address rapid growth in
mobile data services.
According to a new strategic report from Analysys Mason,
mobile operators are dealing with the difficulty of assuring quality of service
(QoS) and keeping operational costs under control.
The report suggests that IP and Ethernet technology
provides networks with flexibility to scale up in order to support traffic
growth as mobile operators deploy lower-cost IP-based radio access technology.
The report says that the deployment cost of the hardware,
the potential integration of multi-vendor solutions and end-to-end management
of the technology are some key considerations for mobile operators when
evaluating suppliers for backhaul solutions.
Additionally, operators also require service cycle to
manage and maintain the backhaul network until the next technology upgrade
cycle.
Patrick Kelly, research director for Analysys
Mason’sTelecoms Software research stream said that some equipment vendors
will implement proprietary management solutions for discovery and fault
monitoring. However, this type of implementation actually prevents effective
scaling and increases the operational cost for mobile operators.
Although, to lessen the risk of increasing operating
cost, mobile operators can select vendors that support MEF-backed standards,
specifically, IEEE 802.1ag, IEEE 802.3ah and ITU Y.1731.
The report suggests that network gear vendors should look
to implement QoS measurement capabilities at network interconnect points that
will help in removing the need for network interface devices.
The most important factor for mobile operators while
making investment decisions in this area is the total cost of ownership of the
IP/MPLS backhaul network and the opex for assuring service.
The report notes that mobile operators that have
standardized their network equipment and management systems will be able to
scale effectively with rapidly growing networks have benefited the most in this
area.
