Bandwidth demand is exploding throughout the marketplace, and at the same time, subscriber revenues are flattening. To react, mobile network operators are being forced to transform their networks, while also preparing for the arrival of 4G/LTE. To stay competitive, these providers must be able to transition quickly and efficiently, while still reducing costs. This overwhelming challenge can be overcome with the Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Backhaul Solution.
A recent Alcatel-Lucent white paper, Any G to LTE Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Backhaul Solution, explored the challenges facing Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) today, including more users, more traffic, more devices, more applications and more machine-to-machine communication. The arrival of 4G/LTE will bring substantially higher capacity, as well as a broader eco-system of applications, devices and content providers.
With so many changes happening rapidly in the wireless space, operators need to know how to boost the capacity of their network and increase their flexibility through IP-based 4G/LTE network architectures. Additionally, these operators need to become more adaptable and respond swiftly to evolving user behaviors to embrace new types of traffic and overcome mounting bandwidth pressures.
These changes will rely heavily on IP and MPLS as they support the service differentiation and agility in the network and allow service providers to create scalable, resilient, cost-effective and multi-purpose transport networks that will support subscriber traffic, whether it is over 2G, 3G or 4G.
The Mobile Backhaul solution from Alcatel-Lucent has been developed as a result of the company’s extensive End-to-End 4G LTE Solution expertise. The company also offers a broad solution portfolio for the development f a strategy that addresses these imperatives regardless of the starting point of the mobile operator. With “Any G to LTE”, there is a practical path for the converging of IP backhaul and transport with the wireless packet-core to establish that network that is common, flexible and robust.
The near-term benefits of the Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Backhaul include the gradual and graceful convergence of 2G, 3G and 4G cell traffic to a single IP network; lower-cost synchronization options; and the ability to address further innovation and growth within the 4G LTE model. The access in this platform delivers high-capacity copper, microwave and fiber cell site access solutions, as well as pre-integrated solutions.
In taking the “Any G to LTE” approach, critical support can be provided to the mobile operator through transformation of the business model and the network. As a result of this approach, the operator gains access to a highly scalable, cost-effective IP and MPLS packet-switched infrastructure that will support current 2G and 3G requirements, in addition to 4G/LTE, while also providing the necessary intelligence and instrumentation to support all operations while in transition.
