The global outdoor small cell backhaul equipment spend between 2013 and 2017 will be $6 billion, said Infonetics Research.
In 2012, the global outdoor small cell mobile backhaul equipment revenue was $39 million.
The market research agency also said outdoor small cell backhaul connections will grow from fewer than 7,000 in 2012 to more than 850,000 in 2017.
“Outdoor small cells are an exciting new expansion of mobile networking, but they come with challenging backhaul issues,” said Michael Howard, principal analyst for carrier networks and co-founder of Infonetics Research.
Of the small cell backhaul technologies, unlicensed millimeter wave makes up the largest portion of revenue.
North America currently leads the outdoor charge, with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Clearwire and Comcast investigating, planning and conducting field trial deployments.
Last week, Eric Costa, analyst in TBR’s Networking and Mobility Practice, said AT&T’s strengths are in its connected device and postpaid segments, and the operator will continue to rapidly invest into these areas. AT&T reached its Digital Life year end goal of 50 markets in October.
According to the Infonetics report, the 2 main applications for outdoor small cell backhaul are adding capacity/extending coverage in high-traffic urban areas and adding coverage in rural areas.
Michael Soper, Networking & Mobility Analyst, TBR, recently said mobile equipment vendor Ericsson introduced the Radio Dot System in September and it fulfills most of the key requirements of operators and enterprise customers looking for the ideal small cell.
Ericsson will leverage operators to engage with an enterprise customer and pull through Ericsson’s solution for implementation. The smoke detector-sized Dot is capable of coordinating with other access elements in the network to attain optimal coverage and capacity.
The other vendors in small cell segment are Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco.
In its related Macrocell Mobile Backhaul Equipment and Services report, Infonetics predicts that a cumulative $44 billion will be spent on macrocell mobile backhaul equipment between 2013 and 2017.
Michael Howard’s comment on small cell backhaul points to one of the industry’s main challenges in 2014 and beyond. With small cells becoming increasingly important in expanding network coverage and capacity, as the Infonetics report shows, how will operators facilitate this expansion? The answer, of course, is by investing in sophisticated backhaul equipment that will meet the unique challenges posed by small cells. One such challenge is network timing. Because outdoor small cells are typically connected via microwave or millimeter wave, various environmental factors can affect latency over these spans. Operators, therefore, will require equipment using the IEEE 1588 precision time protocol. Often used as a backup for GPS-based timing, 1588 will need to be the primary source for small cells. PTP’s ability to meet even the most stringent timing requirements will future-proof networks for ever-advancing mobile technologies, and allow operators to get the most out of their small cell investments.