Mobile Backhaul Solution With Acx Series Universal Access Routers
Mobile Backhaul Solution With Acx Series Universal Access Routers
Mobile Backhaul Solution With Acx Series Universal Access Routers
Challenge
Mobile carriers seek to deliver new,
high-speed services to improve
ARPU and customer retention while
decreasing OpEx and CapEx. A
scalable backhaul solution that
protects their investment at the cell
site, while providing flexibility to add
next-generation technologies quickly
and cost-effectively is desired.
Solution
Junipers solution supports a full
range of transport types, enabling a
cost-effective and adaptive services
architecture for multi-generation
networks. The solution includes
products for the cell site, metro
backhaul and aggregation network,
with a unified network management
solution.
Benefits
Converged networks for IP/MPLS
and legacy systems
Unmatched performance to support
emerging data-intensive services
Operational intelligence and traffic
engineering capabilities
Proven and deployed timing
technology for highest Quality of
Experience (QoE)
The Challenge
Consumers are demanding more mobile servicesespecially bandwidth-hungry
data services. Service providers continue to see rapid growth in data services, and all
indications are that this trend will continue to accelerate. Increased demand for valueadded services such as mobile-to-mobile and mobile-to-machine applications offer
operators new ways to attract and hold subscribers and grow revenues. Realizing this
potential, however, requires upgrading the mobile infrastructure, especially mobile
backhaul. The mobile network architectural evolution to 3G/4G/LTE also brings about
radical connectivity challenges in the control plane. A flattened full mesh, all IP based
control plane and user plane service needs have to be met by the underlying transport
infrastructure. Figure 1 shows the overlay control plane and user plane services on top
of transport and the added services provided by over the top content providers. Any
infrastructure investments in the mobile backhaul should address the user and control
plane needs. Disparate and legacy upgrade of mobile backhaul with Layer 2 Ethernet
packet switching only makes the managed service provider (MSP) network rigid1, and it
wont deliver the benefits of the evolution.
At the same time, carriers are looking for ways to reduce operating expense (OpEx) and
capital expense (CapEx) in order to compensate for declining average revenue per user
(ARPU), increasing competition, and new technologies. And, while they need to roll out
new IP-based services in order to survive and thrive, carriers still must provide and protect
legacy non-IP-based services, since these services will continue to produce a significant
share of their revenue for many years to come.
To achieve their goals, mobile operators realize that they must evolve legacy backhaul
networks that do not provide the flexibility or scalability to cost-effectively support
multiple services on the same network. Ease of provisioning, planning, and network
management is also vital to reducing OpEx and ensuring rapid new service creation and
delivery. Additionally, evolving business models in the overall telecom industry are driving
operators to closely integrate their networks with content and application providers in
order to generate new revenue streams and differentiate from competitors. To do this,
operators require a means of separating, securing, and steering traffic, and maintaining
strict service-level agreements (SLAs). Next-generation mobile backhaul solutions must
address all of these challenges.
1
See Pietro Belotti, Comparison of MPLS and Ethernet Networks at the Access-Aggregation Level
(http://myweb.clemson.edu/~pbelott/papers/comparison-eth-mpls.pdf).
Control Plane
VPN
MME
HSS/HLR
Hosted
Services
Policy Control
Value-Added Services
BTS/NB
RNC/BSC
User Plane
MME
YouTube
P-GW/GGSN
S-GW
eNB
Cellsite
Data Center
Over-the-Top
Transport
Backhaul
PreAggregation
Aggregation
OffNet
Services
Edge
Backbone
Internet
Routing
Figure 1: Control and User plane services overlay on top of legacy transport layer.
Limitations of the existing mobile backhaul solutions include:
Cost: For mobile backhaul today, operators typically use copper
or microwave time-division multiplexing (TDM) links, often
leased from other service providers. Unlike infrastructure costs,
leased line expenses are ongoing, draining profits and impacting
competitiveness. Any cost savings realized in backhaul go straight
to the bottom line.
Scalability: A typical cell site requires two or three leased T1/E1
lines, representing 4 to 6 Mbps of bandwidth. New data intensive
mobile services could more than double this requirement.
Adding this much capacity via TDM lines is time-consuming and
economically prohibitive. Carriers need the ability to add capacity
on demand to respond to changing customer needs.
Flexibility: As mobile networks evolve from 2G to 3G and beyond,
cell sites must support multiple transport technologies such
as TDM, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), and IP/Ethernet.
Carriers have substantial investments in 2G technology, so a
rip-and-replace strategy is not feasible. The next generation
of backhaul components must support multiple coexistent
technologies at the cell site.
Efficiency: Because each T1/E1 line is dedicated, excess capacity
cannot easily be shared. The current method of providing backhaul
capacity invariably involves a substantial amount of unusedand
expensivebandwidth in the mobile backhaul.
Wireline/MSC
Cell Sites
TCA8500
TDM
PTP
2G GSM/CDMA
CE MPCs
2G BSC
TDM
MX80
ATM/TDM
ATM/IP
ACX Series
3G UMTS/CDMA 1xEV-DO
Nx
T1/E1
IP/Ethernet
MX240
MX480
MX960
Metro Transport
3G RNC
IP/
Ethernet
1588v2
SyncE
3G UMTS/CDMA 1xEV-DO
EPS GW
Small/Metro Cells
Figure 2: Juniper Mobile Backhaul Solution with ACX series cell site router, MX 3D Series Aggregation routers and
Junos Space network management platform.
Reduced OpEx
Extending IP/MPLS (a proven and familiar technology for most
mobile operators) into backhaul can offer substantial reductions
in cost-per-bit for backhaul transport. For example, replacing
three T1 lines with carrier Ethernet can result in savings of up to
70 percent or more for each cell site. The network management
features of the Juniper solution greatly reduce ongoing operational
expenses and increase operational efficiency. The Juniper solution
virtually eliminates site visits except for hardware upgrades.
Solution Components
Juniper Networks ACX Series Universal Access Routers
Designed for the demanding environment of the cell site, the
temperature hardened ACX Series includes four fixed models:
the ACX1000, ACX1100, ACX2000, and ACX2100 and a modular
ACX4000 router3. With industry best scale and performance, the
ACX Series can deliver up to 60 Gbps throughput and support
10GbE uplinks.
By deploying the ACX Series, mobile operators can retain their
existing investment in 2G and 3G cell sites while reaping the
benefits of IP/MPLS-based transport. Services can be migrated
gradually, for example, by offloading the high growth data
transport as a first step.
ACX Series features include:
Provides transport of legacy T1/E1 circuits across a IP/MPLS
packet network
Compact form factor (9.4 inches/24 cm deep ETSI 300
compliant), which is ideal for cell site deployments
Temperature hardened with passive cooling design for increased
reliability and reduced power consumption
For ACX series product details please to ACXSeries Universal Access Routers Datasheet (http://www.juniper.net/us/en/products-services/routing/acx-series/#datasheets)
Next Steps
To learn more about Juniper Networks Mobile Backhaul Solution
and the ACX Series Universal Access Routers, please visit
www.juniper.net or contact your local Juniper Networks sales
representative.
APAC Headquarters
EMEA Headquarters
Phone: 35.31.8903.600
or 408.745.2000
Phone: 852.2332.3636
Fax: 408.745.2100
Fax: 852.2574.7803
Fax: 35.31.8903.601
www.juniper.net
Copyright 2012 Juniper Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Juniper Networks, the Juniper Networks logo, Junos,
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3510331-003-EN
Jan 2012