We’re all familiar with the graphic that shows mobile traffic growing by a factor of 2 each year while ARPU limps along at a very slow rise. Now we can replace that graphic with one showing the rapid growth of mobile traffic while mobile network capacity increases at a much slower rate. Even with LTE, data offload and increased spectrum efficiency, mobile network operators will not be able to keep pace with the growth of mobile data traffic. We see the deployment of metro-area small cells as almost certain in geographic areas with high smartphone and tablet adoption. There is a lot of development effort focused on the small cell metro RAN; however, it is backhaul that will comprise the bulk of the metro cell cost, size and weight, and it is backhaul that represents some of the most daunting challenges. In this session, we take a look at the five-year development horizon for small cell backhaul, the form factor, network architecture and, perhaps most contentiously, backhaul spectrum.
Moderator:
Monica Paolini, Founder and President, Senza Fili Consulting
Panelists:
David Hassman, Vice President of Mobility and Content Delivery, BTI Systems
Greg Friesen, Vice President of Product Management, DragonWave
Jay Stewart, Director of Ethernet Solutions, JDSU
