Ericsson has released latest in a continuing series of reports on Microwave Towards 2020, an in-depth report on the state of the microwave business, and notes that in 2020, 65 percent of all cell sites will be connected with microwave solutions (excluding China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan). The choice between fiber and microwave in backhaul networks will not be about capacity, it will be about fiber presence and total cost of ownership, Ericsson said.
Ericsson said networks continue to be modernized using a combination of microwave and fiber backhaul. Choosing what media to deploy will not be about capacity, rather it will be about fiber presence and the total operating cost.
Ericsson said large variants across different parts of the world will continue. In North America, the number of cell sites connected through microwave is expected to increase to 20% by 2020.
Whereas in India, 70% of sites will be connected with microwave by that time to provide high capacity mobile broadband.
The report said the large differences in regions are often due to historical backgrounds and are highly dependent on telecom maturity and the availability of fixed services, and whether governmental initiatives to deploy fiber are in place such as seen in Latin America, Africa and India.
Ericsson said that by using the microwave spectrum efficiently, backhaul capacity needs in future radio networks will be met throughout 2020 and beyond.
The report said that microwave backhaul technology is already able to handle 100 percent of all radio access sites’ capacity needs, both now and in the future. By 2020, the technology will have evolved to support multi-Gb capacities in traditional frequency bands and beyond 10 Gb in the millimeter wave.
Karolina Wikander, Head of Microwave, Ericsson, said “Microwave networks are a vital ingredient for operators to provide the best possible performance and quality of experience in the most cost-efficient way, and will continue to be the dominant backhaul technology in the future.
The full report is available here.
