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The broadband market is a rippling stream no more. Greater penetration and a widening range of application segments have turned it into a rushing, rolling river. For telcos, the agents of growth include TV services, online video and a surge in peer-to-peer content traffic. For mobile carriers, the once-gradual move into 3G is now running at full speed, and if you think mobile video and mobile Internet are gobbling up capacity, just wait for 4G—it’s not far off.
Can your network handle the broadband flood without being overwhelmed?The new broadband market reality means that the network resources traditionally committed to backhauling network traffic—from DSLAMs in a wireline network to cell sites in a wireless network—may no longer be enough. And if you think the TDM gear and T-1s currently used for backhaul are doing the job now, just wait a year or two—the tremendous growth in bandwidth isn’t about to dissipate.
The time to upgrade backhaul capacity and create a new backhaul roadmap for the future is now. In addition to their own broadband backhaul needs, telcos need to have enough capacity properly allocated to support the backhaul requirements of mobile carriers. T-1 lines with TDM aggregation have long been the standard backhaul model, but mobile carriers’ 3G deployments have upped the ante. 3G networks typically are requiring an average of two to four more T-1s per cell site than 2G networks
But the cost of all those T-1s, at several hundred dollars per line, adds up: Backhaul costs are responsible for the lion’s share of operational technology expenses at most wireless carriers. The sheer traffic growth and the increasing costs make T-1s less viable, and a variety of solutions—Ethernet, microwave, pseudowire, fiber LAN and even T-1s applied with copper bonding—can bring home backhauled traffic with much greater efficiency at lower cost.
Meanwhile, telcos face the costs associated with rolling out and supporting T-1s, and aggregating the backhauled traffic with TDM gear. It’s time for an IP migration that can force that old, expensive gear out of the network. IP backhaul offers greater efficiency, growth flexibility and long-term operational cost savings. TDM is the clunky, costly past. IP is the streamlined future, and an IP network with an upgraded backhaul architecture and transport conduits is a network future-proofed for the broadband flood.
The migration isn’t an easy one, and different organizations and network topologies require a thorough analysis to come up with the right solution. Whatever your backhaul needs, EMBARQ Logistics works with a myriad of suppliers—Alcatel-Lucent, ADTRAN, Aktino, Turin Networks, Rad Data, Worldwide Packets, and more—to provide the full menu of backhaul solutions. EMBARQ Logistics has successfully helped carriers such as CenturyTel and Churchill County Communications tackle their backhaul challenges with cost-effective, future-proof upgrades, and it can help you, too.