The Business Case for Packet-Based RANs

The expected bandwidth upsurge associated with the rollout of new mobile broadband services and NG mobile standards shifts the transport burden to the RAN backhaul - the connections between the base stations and their controllers. While in the past a small number of E1/T1 links were sufficient to service 2G and some 3G traffic, the bandwidth requirements of HSPA, 3GPP's UTRAN LTE, and Mobile WiMax cannot be met economically by traditional E1/T1 links. This realization is leading cellular operators to re-evaluate their backhaul strategy. The Business Case for Packet-Based RANs white paper maintains that the key to successfully controlling the growth in mobile backhaul expenses is in decoupling bandwidth from cost. This is achieved by optimizing transport capacity and migrating to cost-effective packet-based backhaul technologies as Carrier Ethernet, MPLS and DSL. This paper examines the implications of the IP backhaul evolution on operations and services, reviews the various tactics operators can employ in realizing a balanced transition, and provides tools to assess the financial benefits of such an approach. For the complete Business Case for Packet-Based RAN white paper, download the PDF.