Why mobile operators are running out of runway

by Lance Hiley, Cambridge Broadband Networks

Filed in mobile broadband

Results from the Broadband Communications Authority, Epitiro, have shown that, on average, today’s UK household has access to less than 1Mbps. As Epitiro executive Iain Wood was quoted in a recent unstrung article:

“There’s not enough bandwidth to go around.”

This is largely caused by a lack of high-bandwidth fixed infrastructure, like fibre optic cables, linking the various cities, towns and countrysides to the global internet and each other.

Mobile operators operate within this limitation and have their own backhaul bottlenecks: Limited bandwidth on their mobile networks is exacerbated by the current combination of ‘dongle-data’ and voice traffic. Recently, operators have been furiously working at ways to separate the two types of traffic, to ensure the user experience of one is not badly affected by the other.

It is believed that the growth in demand for HSDPA packet data coming from mobile broadband dongles and smartphones like the Blackberry storm and iPhone will affect overall quality of service, which in turn would create problems for mobile users making voice calls. Voice traffic is relatively easy for network operators to predict and manage, so they can engineer this part of their network to ensure there are no delays or interruptions. But mobile data is less easy to predict and manage. So, operators caught short that do not have enough bandwidth in their backhaul networks to go around are taking short-term, tactical decisions to offload their packet data traffic and handle it differently to their voice traffic. For example, we have seen operators moving their packet data traffic on to locally available ADSL lines. This delays CAPEX but adds to operating expenditure which is something that most operators are trying to reduce so clearly it is not a sustainable long-term solution. This short-term behaviour is predictable because many operators do not feel that they are ready to make the bigger strategic decision to jump to all-IP networks using carrier Ethernet or MPLS.

A preferable approach would be to implement a longer term strategic solution that fits with the operator’s overall development strategy, while keeping control of OPEX figures.

One approach open to operators would be to use a technology like VectaStar to provide a packet-data backhaul overlay network in high traffic areas that would be able to quickly provide off-load backhaul using high-capacity microwave links. The performance of the VectaStar links are similar to what you would get from a fibre-optic leased line and would easily scale from the HSDPA offload requirements today to the backhaul requirements of future mobile broadband technologies like LTE. Furthermore, VectaStar easily copes with the hybrid mixed-protocol environments found at many cell sites today whilst being ready to connect to all-IP Ethernet networks when they are deployed. Therefore a modest CAPEX investment today dramatically reduces backhaul OPEX and meets long term investment return goals.

Operators are running out of bandwidth runway so should be considering their options to remain competitive. A strategic decision like a VectaStar overlay backhaul network for packet data offload means many operators could have the option to pull back on the stick and soar above their competitors.