A survey by Infonetics Research said telecom operators are yet to scale their small cell deployments, but they are looking to place over 20 percent of their traffic from the macro network onto small cells by 2018.
The survey said backhaul-specific challenges like planning site acquisition, power and connection sourcing, and cost models have impacted their deployment timelines.
Infonetics Research said Ethernet over fiber is the preferred backhaul technology for outdoor small cells, followed by point-to-point microwave and millimeter wave.
Ethernet over fiber is the most-used technology for in-building deployments, the small cell backhaul survey said.
With small cell deployments occurring in a range of locations and with an array of topologies, no single backhaul technology will be a universal solution.
No single vendor is likely to dominate the small cell backhaul landscape. Survey participants strongly favor a group of vendors with wired and wireless backhaul solutions.
Price-to-performance ratio, product reliability, and pricing as the top 3 criteria for choosing a small cell backhaul vendor.
editor@telecomlead.com
