In an earlier post I discussed the hurdles EFM (Ethernet in the First Mile) Bonded Copper solutions have in becoming the de-facto copper broadband service technology. Most of these barriers to entry centered around regulatory reactions to fears of anything that could disrupt DSL/VDSL services that have already been in place for years. The link to the post is here.
While the potential for non-DSL based Copper Bonded Solutions has challenges in replacing DSL in the short term there is one place where it might prove to be the right technology at the right time. That place is Mobile Backhaul.
The challenges currently facing the Mobile Carriers are centered around the need for Mobile Networks to be able to serve millions of devices with data hungry applications. A quick look under the covers reveals the following:
- The Need for bandwidth is far outpacing the existing backhaul technologies
- Ethernet is the de-facto standard but how do we get it to all of the base stations
- Fiber is only available, on average in Europe, to 15% of the base stations
- Microwave, while versatile and useful, doesn’t natively handle Ethernet Speeds
- Mobile Carriers like the pay-as-you-grow aspect of bonding T1/E1 circuits today
If we take all of this into account we see that we need to have a transport medium that works on copper, able to be bonded and has a reach of several kilometers.
Bonded Copper EFM comes in many different flavors (a lot like DSL) and one of those flavors that is piquing the interest of Mobile Backhaul providers is the ability to do Asymmetrical EFM. Asymmetrical EFM affords significantly greater distances between EFM units than traditional symmetrical solutions as well as blending nicely with the normal traffic pattern of consumer data consumption.
Furthermore EFM is a service that offers the ability to “bond” copper pairs together and transparently increase the capacity of a circuit with each coper pair added. In some instances up to 32 copper pairs can be included in one “circuit”.
From a bandwidth availability standpoint; If we think about the baseline Bonded Copper speeds of 8+ Mbit per copper pair then we multiply this by 32 pairs, we’re talking the ability to have 250Mbits/second to a wireless base station over copper several kilometers away from any CO. that’s pretty impressive.
