1. Executive Summary
 1.1. New mobile technologies improve network capacity and data rates
 1.2. Traditional backhaul model is unsustainable
 1.3. Beyond capacity, cost is the determinant criterion for backhaul migration
 1.4. Combination of FTTx and LTE backhaul investments could ease backhaul upgrade

2. Methodology

3. Backhaul in the eyes of the telcos
 3.1. Dramatic growth of data traffic
 3.1.1. Global data traffic will quadruple by 2014
 3.1.2. Current data growth driven by mobile usage
 3.2. Telcos still cautious with network spends
 3.2.1. No additional capex foreseen by telcos
          • Capex under pressure
 3.2.2. Operator investments in legacy mobile backhaul are not sustainable
          • Wireless capacity requirements on the increase
          • Operators having to transform their backhaul network
          • Backhaul portion of network weighs heavily in mobile network operator costs

4. Backhaul, the state of the art
 4.1. Definition of backhaul
        • Re-defining backhaul frontier
 4.2. Backhaul network elements and RAN requirements/constraints
 4.2.1. Capacity, latency and jitter
 4.2.2. Quality of Service (QoS)
 4.2.3. Clock synchronisation
 4.2.4. Management with Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM)
 4.2.5. Supporting legacy and IP over new backhaul network
          • Circuit services emulated with pseudowires
          • Pseudowire technology provides a migration path 
 4.3. Various technologies can support backhaul at Physical Layer…
 4.4. Microwave
        • Microwave characteristics
 4.4.1. Copper
          • Legacy copper
          • DSL
 4.4.2. Fibre
 4.4.3. Others
 4.4.4. Summary
 4.5. Transport network options for backhaul
        • Ethernet
        • Carrier Ethernet over PBB-TE, or MPLS-TP?
 4.6. Future options for mobile backhauling

5. Case studies
 • AT&T
 • BT Wholesale
 • NTT DOCOMO
 • Orange
 • TeliaSonera
 • Telstra
 • T-Mobile USA
 • Verizon

6. Conclusions
 6.1. Key backhaul challenges faced by MNOs
        • LTE is driving need to upgrade backhaul
        • Migration to packet-based Ethernet mobile backhaul no longer challenged
        • The real issue today is how to manage migration cost-efficiently
        • Changes of the Radio Access architecture impact on the backhaul
 6.2. Analysis of strategy options for MNOs
        • Microwave, DSL or Fibre?
        • Investment in mobile backhaul may be linked to FTTH deployment
        • Smooth migration or straight upgrade?
        • Purchase capacity, or deploy own infrastructure?

• How high are the Capex and Opex related to the mobile backhaul infrastructure? What are the technologies used and which one can be a cost-effective alternative?

• What are the stakes for operators? How can they improve their mobile backhaul infrastructure ?

• What are the upcoming trends for mobile backhhaul upgrade? How are the major MNOs deploying their backhaul strategy?

• Is optical fibre the unique answer to rising mobile data traffic due to LTE deployment? 


> This report ships with a complementary slideshow.

• AT&T
• BT
• NTT DOCOMO
• Orange France
• TeliaSonera
• Telstra
• T-Mobile USA
• Verizon