Enabling the Migration to All IP/Ethernet LTE with MRV's Carrier Ethernet Access and Optical Transport Solution

LTE at a Glance

LTE specifies a high-performance 4G technology and network architecture that was developed to increase network capacity and throughput by enabling greater speeds with lower packet latency and consequently allows the growing field of wireless communications to support multimedia applications and enable true wireless broadband technology. LTE is based on a completely new concept in mobile networking which simplifies the architecture while increasing connectivity. An LTE implementation produces a more efficient and flexible network, easy to deploy and operate. LTE architecture is based on a flatter IP wireless layer architecture with LTE eNodeB base stations evolving to support radio control functions, eliminating need for a base station controller and allowing a direct tunnel from cell sites to gateway site. Adopted by both GSM and CDMA operators, LTE paves the way for today's deployed 3G networks, whether they are based on wideband CDMA (W-CDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), and HSPA+. As such, LTE is expected to become the first unified global standard for cellular communications.

LTE will become the single mobile network for mobile phone and mobile broadband, adopted by most of the world in the next 5 to 10 years. By 2015, LTE will likely support 100 million mobile devices and will continue to rapidly gain subscribers from the 2G/3G base. Mobile operators and wholesale backhaul transport providers are adopting IP/Ethernet backhaul as technology of choice to cost effectively scale instead of relying on existing TDM-based transport networks for LTE backhaul. The decision to do so is based on a number of facts:

  • In HSPA and LTE, the data plane traffic is IP, so operators are migrating to Ethernet interfaces for base station and controller equipment
  • Ethernet has been and will be the best Layer 2 transport mechanism for IP packet
  • Ethernet services and networks are less complex and less expensive than scaling TDM or operating an IP backhaul network
  • Operators trust Carrier Ethernet (CE) due to the standards and testing driven by the Metro Ethernet Forum

MRV's Future-proof LTE-ready Solution

MRV's OptiSwitch® 900 Carrier Ethernet Access solution portfolio was specifically designed to meet the LTE early deployment challenges, by providing future-proof solution with smooth migration path. Offering multiservice, multi-generation support, MRV's intelligent Carrier Ethernet cell-site demarcation devices feature advanced capabilities to allow mobile operators and wholesale transport providers to address the skyrocketing mobile subscribers growth combined while ensuring high quality of experience. Such capabilities include the following:

OptiSwitch® 900 Solution and Benefits
  • Multi-functional demarcation for all deployment scenarios up to 10 GigE with crystal-clear responsibility boundaries
  • Supports ring topology with ITU-T G.8032 (ERPS) ring-based protection
  • MEF compliant E-Line/E-LAN connectivity services
  • Hierarchical QoS per flow, UNI, EVC, CoS for premium and strict SLAs enables the wholesale transport provider to offer premium services with guaranteed BW per mobile operator per service
  • Enables end-to-end Ethernet service visibility, SLA monitoring & measurement tools with accuracy at a nano second level, and Ethernet virtual circuit loopbacks for non-intrusive fault analysis (including Y.1731 Performance Monitoring and RFC2544 built-in traffic generator for service turn-up)
  • Support a suite of Synchronization and Timing over Packet technologies, including the simultaneous use of ITU-T G.8262 Sync-E and IEEE1588v2
  • Zero-touch provisioning enables mass deployment at minimal operational cost