Gazing out over the near future, wireless operators see a tidal wave heading straight at them—the surging flood of broadband traffic, fed by the widespread use of smart phones and mobile video applications.

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With the first waves already crashing onto their networks, that flood of traffic threatens to become a tsunami as operators roll out bandwidth-intensive 4G and Long-Term Evolution (LTE) services in the coming months. Unless they begin to prepare right now, that tsunami could bring down their networks.

Despite the global economic conditions, demand for wireless services continues to skyrocket. Operators must make the investments needed to boost the capacity of their backhaul networks. If they cannot deliver the mobile speeds and performance their subscribers demand, those subscribers will defect to competitors.

According to Visant Strategies, the number of U.S. basestations that support more than 24 Mbits/s of backhaul capacity will grow more than 20-fold between 2009 and 2015. Although many operators now rely mainly on copper T1 and microwave for backhaul capacity, most ultimately will turn to fiber for their network upgrades.

Tom Huegerich is vice president, global fiber engineering, at ADC Telecommunications. He has more than 25 years of experience in fiber connectivity and the telecom industry.

Backhaul Migration Is A Technology Mix

To shore up their backhaul networks to meet the surge of 4G/LTE traffic, operators today use a combination of copper, microwave, and fiber. As they migrate their networks, they likely will continue to lease copper T1 lines, which currently provide backhaul service for about 90% of North American cell sites.

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