Indonesia gets taste of mobile broadband future

One of the biggest challenges facing operators is how to cope with the mobile and converged broadband capacity requirements for widespread uptake of services such as high speed internet, video on demand and peer-to-peer services like online gaming. More than 700 employees of Indonesian operator XL Axiata became the latest to witness Ericsson's microwave MINI-LINK-based answer to the challenge.

End-user habits are changing. While timeframe predictions differ on the mass uptake of services, most industry experts agree that it will happen – it is a case of when, not if.

Failure to provide the capacity requirements for such high quality services will inevitably result in loss of business, because most end users will go to whoever can provide the services they want.

Mobile broadband subscribers in Indonesia are no different to their counterparts around the world in wanting fast and convenient access to the internet anywhere and at any time.

Ericsson showcased 1Gbps packet traffic over two 56MHz channels in an LTE-ready MINI-LINK mobile backhaul solution. Thanks to the MINI-LINK capabilities to combine several streams of Ethernet traffic into one logical connection, even higher capacities can be provided simply by adding channels to the system.

The message behind Ericsson's showcase at XL Axiata's Jakarta premises was simple: operators must prepare today for tomorrow's capacity requirements. This includes introducing higher capacity packet-enabled microwave technology now.

This is a message Ericsson is repeating to other operators in the region and around the world.

The 1Gbps demonstration in Jakarta – the first of its kind in Indonesia – showed how the capacity needs for current and future mobile and converged broadband services can be met through microwave mobile backhaul solutions.

Dian Siswarini, XL Axiata director of Network Services, says the XL/Ericsson Knowledge Day allowed both companies to explore developments in technology, such as the very high capacity of the mobile backhaul demonstration.

"Technologies that lead to greater transmission capacity are desperately needed for next-generation in mobile," she says.

Mats Otterstedt, president of Ericsson Indonesia, says: "When we pitched the idea of Ericsson Business Lounge to XL Axiata, they immediately agreed to it. They even suggested making the event a partnership between XL and Ericsson by incorporating it to their internal initiative on knowledge sharing. That's why the event was called XL-Ericsson Knowledge Day. It was a great partnership activity combining vendor and operator perspectives.

"We also showed, through 512-QAM modulation, how existing radio infrastructure can be utilized to achieve higher capacity within the existing spectrum. This means that operators can keep existing radio base stations, while ensuring future capacity needs are met. The 512 QAM modulation will be available soon."

By combining several streams of traffic into one logical Ethernet connection, using the unique Ericsson feature called Radio Link Bonding, Ericsson can enable up to 1Gbps hops with any mix of packet and/or TDM traffic with full quality of service (QoS).

The introduction of hitless adaptive modulation also allows for even more broadband capacity out of existing available spectrum – with full support for carrier grade services thanks to the QoS mechanisms. The microwave solutions have full support for IP and can handle TDM natively – resulting in very efficient use of spectrum for maximum capacity over the hop.

"This is our future-proof policy in action. This will support a smooth network upgrade from TDM to Ethernet transport – securing our customers income from voice traffic while expanding the business in mobile broadband," says Ola Gustafsson, head of Product Line Microwave within Ericsson.

Otterstedt says that XL Axiata's attendees were impressed by the solution.

"We successfully showed how microwave provides a mobile backhaul solution that is ready to support the development of mobile broadband, 3G and LTE."

0 comments:

Post a Comment