4G Wireless Backhaul

Infrastructure Using Carrier Ethernet

Transport Technologies

Introduction conferencing, image sharing, video, and high-speed data,

The telecommunications industry is evolving rapidly. Wireline strains the infrastructure. The generations of wireless standards
carriers are making significant investments in fiber infrastructures are shown in Figure 1.
to deliver business, transport and residential services, and 100M
4G WiMAX UMB
iBurst
LTE
Carrier Ethernet is emerging as an important access and 50M HIPERMAN
WiBro
UMTS-TDD
backhaul technology around the globe. 25M
3G HSPA+
HSDPA/HSUPA

UPLINK
10M 1xEV-DO
UMTS/W-CDMA
Wireless carriers are scrambling to keep pace with a growing 1M PHS
GAN/UMA
2G CDMA2000
TD-SCDMA
demand for mobile Internet services, and wireless equipment 100K iDEN WiDEN
GSM
EDGE/
EGPRS
CSD PDC D-AMPS
vendors are developing fourth generation (4G) technologies 10K
1G CDPD GPRS IS-95
DataTAC
Mobitex
HSCSD
AMPS
that can provide IP-based, high-speed broadband services for 0K
NMT
10K 100K 1M 10M 25M 50M 100M

fixed, nomadic and mobile users. DOWNLINK

Figure 1. Wireless standards evolution

As wireless carriers move to 4G mobile technology, huge
demands are being placed on carrier backhaul infrastructure.
The multiple, high-bandwidth, quality-sensitive services that
carriers have planned for 4G technology require an
infrastructure that is packet-based, scalable and resilient, as well
as cost-effective to install, operate and manage.
An innovative, connection-oriented Ethernet technology, Provider
Backbone Bridging-Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) 802.1Qay, is
emerging as a key solution for addressing the enormous 4G
backhaul infrastructure challenge. Currently being standardized by
the IEEE, PBB-TE promises to provide the resiliency, scalability and
operational efficiency that wireless carriers require.
4G Network Characteristics and Requirements
Several 4G network characteristics have been established by
international standards development organizations and forums.
These requirements and performance targets are shown in
Figure 2, along with their impact on air interface and/or
infrastructure equipment. Generally, 4G standards are
characterized by superior bandwidth, which sacrifices some of
the mobility attributes.
802.11
SPEED

4G
Wireless Evolution to 4G
First generation (1G) mobile systems were analog and focused 3G
2G 1G
only on voice traffic. Second generation (2G) marked the
transition from analog to digital systems. Third generation (3G) MOBILITY
mobile systems evolved to support more bandwidth-hungry
Figure 2. 4G requirements and performance targets
services, such as email, text messaging and image sharing.
While most of the target 4G characteristics directly relate to the
Typically, 3G mobile networks require two parallel backbone
family of air interface standards, many directly influence the
infrastructures—one consisting of circuit-switched nodes and one
backhaul infrastructure requirements. These include:
consisting of packet-based nodes. This network infrastructure
doubles the capital and operational expenses associated with » Scalability
deploying, maintaining and operating 3G mobile networks. » Resiliency

4G mobile networks require a single, all-IP, packet-based » Topological flexibility

backhaul infrastructure, providing carriers with a significant cost » Improved economics
advantage. However, the number of mobile devices and
multitude of services, such as traditional voice, voice

W A S D P White Paper
4G Wireless Backhaul
Scalability Requirements
Improved customer scalability
Each successive wireless generation has experienced significant
customer growth. Some early 4G network markets have seen
end station counts (measured in Media Access Control [MAC]
addresses) that are two to five times higher than initial
estimates. Therefore, the 4G wireless backhaul infrastructure
must be able to support tens to hundreds of thousands of MAC
addresses per market.
IP transport
IPv6 is an important network layer technology for 4G networks
given the number of wireless and mobile devices moving to IP-
based services. A Layer 2 transport backhaul infrastructure using
IPv4 for management enables use of IPv6 network layer scalability
without requiring Network Address Translation (NAT).
Base stations
Markets require diverse numbers of base stations/towers. The
4G wireless backhaul infrastructure must be able to handle
growing base station counts while retaining address and
customer scalability.
Resiliency Requirements
Stability
As 4G networks are deployed and expanded, the stability during
backhaul infrastructure expansion and maintenance is a critical
issue. Current stopgap implementations are prone to mis-
configuration, causing traffic storms and costly network outages.
There must be resilient, reliable backhaul infrastructure stability.
Predictable low-latency data transmission
Voice and other services reliant on fixed circuit-switched
network delay require packet-based, low-latency, predictable
data transmission.
Multi-vendor interoperability
Legacy Ethernet implementations often use vendor-specific
proprietary control plane protocols to attempt to solve diverse
backhaul architectures.
Optimized bandwidth plan
Traditional Ethernet backhaul technologies use loop prevention
control plane protocols, such as IEEE 802.1w Rapid Spanning
Tree (RST). Often, half of the backhaul capacity/paths are
disabled when these protocols are used. In order to maximize
backhaul utilization, enhanced techniques to manage redundant
paths and overall bandwidth engineering are required.
Deterministic bandwidth guarantees
Some network redundancy schemes result in overloaded paths
during fault conditions. To provide deterministic bandwidth, 4G
wireless backhaul infrastructure must have predictable failover
and resiliency schemes.
2
Pre-defined failover actions
Legacy Ethernet’s connectionless nature weakens bandwidth
and Quality of Service (QoS) configurability.
Topological flexibility requirements
Base station site interconnect technology
Wireless and mobile operators face myriad challenges when
interconnecting base stations. In some cases, copper or fiber access
is available. In many instances, microwave links are more economical
and readily deployable. 4G mobile backhaul infrastructure must
have the flexibility to accommodate wireline copper, fiber, or
wireless microwave and free space optical connectivity.
Economic requirements
Cost effective
Given the competitive nature of wireline and wireless operators,
the backhaul infrastructure solution must be cost effective to
deploy, maintain and operate.
Simplified provisioning
Since mobile networks are constantly evolving through expanding
markets, growing numbers of base stations, and customers,
network and service provisioning must be simple yet powerful.
Automated network monitoring
While many legacy technologies like TDM contain
extensive monitoring capabilities, traditional Ethernet
lacks troubleshooting and fault detection. 4G wireless backhaul
infrastructure requires network and service monitoring, as well
as fault detection, isolation, repair, and verification capabilities.
Using PBB-TE in 4G Wireless Backhaul Networks
In early 2007, IEEE 802.1 commissioned a project to standardize
Provider Backbone Transport (PBT) as PBB-TE. Known as IEEE
802.1Qay, the effort will produce a standard that defines
enhanced Ethernet-based techniques for transporting services
across diverse network topologies using MAC header
encapsulation. PBB-TE, shown in Figure 3, has emerged to
address current Layer 2 bridging limitations that relate to
resiliency and scalability.
Internet
POP
Figure 3. Mobile Backhaul using IEEE 802.1Qay PBB-TE
 4G Wireless Backhaul

U NIQ UE F EATURES AND B ENEFITS OF

C IENA W IRELESS B ACKHAUL S OLUTION S

Ciena Feature Benefit

Improved resiliency No customer MAC address

learning in backhaul infrastructure
No flooding of unknown MAC
addresses
Reduced likelihood of traffic storm
Standards-based control plane =
IEEE 802.1ag CFM, ITV-T Y.1731 Figure 4. Redundant PBB-TE tunnels
» Explicit primary and backup
paths The topological flexibility associated with PBB-TE enables 4G
» Enables fast and predictable cells to grow and expand as market penetration and customer
failover acquisition dictates. A logical view of the same 4G market is
shown in Figure 5. In this example, each base station has a
Improved scalability Switches at each base station only
learn attached customer MAC primary and backup tunnel configured back to the POP.
addresses and backhaul addresses
(not transiting customer MACs)
Only the POP-located backbone
edge bridge, which terminates
PBB-TE tunnels, learns all customer
MACs

Improved service True traffic engineering

predictability Since 4G networks have
configurable channel bandwidth,
PBB-TE tunnels can accommodate a
wide range of service types and
bandwidth plans
Figure 5. Redundant 4G PBB-TE tunnels
Configurable bandwidth for
services and tunnels
Base station traffic is forwarded along the primary tunnel. Each
» Committed Information Rate,
Excess Information Rate primary tunnel is protected by one or more backup tunnels.
Improves network utilization Multiple techniques are used to provide efficient tunnel failover
Optimized paths minimize and service restoration in the event the backhaul infrastructure
frame delay
links become unreliable or inoperable.

Interoperable, Data plane = IEEE 802.1Qay PBB-

standards-based TE
Control plane = IEEE 802.1ag
CFM, ITV-T Y.1731
Eliminates use of proprietary,
vendor-specific protocols
PBB-TE eliminates the need for non-edge switches to perform
MAC address learning and unknown address flooding. Instead,
point-to-point tunnels are provisioned using a comprehensive
management platform. Rather than using conventional Ethernet
control plane protocols such as IEEE 802.1w RSTP and IEEE
802.1s MSTP to prevent loops and provide resiliency, the
management platform traffic engineers the operator’s network,
which utilizes more capacity, pre-defines failover scenarios and
optimizes service performance and assurance.
Figure 4 depicts PBB-TE equipment located at the Point of
Presence (POP) and at each base station location. Redundant
PBB-TE tunnels take divergent paths back to the POP to provide
deterministic, reliable failover.
Tunnel Resiliency Techniques
PBB-TE provides a variety of tunnel resiliency techniques. One
technique involves IEEE 802.1ag Connectivity Fault
Management (CFM) frames, which are known as Continuity
Check Messages (CCMs). CFM provides network, path and
service-level in-band management capabilities. Primary and
backup tunnels are monitored using CFM CCM frames. Each
tunnel endpoint sends CCMs at preconfigured intervals to
monitor the status of the tunnel. A disruption in the reception
of CCMs causes tunnel failover to occur. Base station traffic is
then automatically switched to the backup tunnel.
Another technique involves ITU-T Recommendation
G.8031/Y.1342, which defines Ethernet Protection Switching
(EPS). This recommendation defines point-to-point Virtual Local
Area Network (VLAN)-based protection schemes including 1+1
and 1:1 protection switching architectures. The 1+1 protection
scheme implies the base station traffic is permanently sent
across the primary and backup tunnels. The tunnel endpoint
discards the backup tunnel traffic until detection of a primary
tunnel failure. The Automatic Protection Switching (APS)

3
4G Wireless Backhaul

protocol synchronizes the two tunnel endpoints. The 1:1 » iBurst

protection scheme signifies that the base station traffic is only
» Uses technology known as High Capacity Spatial Division
sent across the backup tunnel upon detection of a failure.
Again, the APS protocol synchronizes the tunnel endpoints. Multiple Access (HC-SDMA), recently standardized by
While this recommendation is useful for basic point-to-point Alliance of Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS)
topologies, it is not intended for more complex topologies like
» Long Term Evolution (LTE) – also known as UMTS release 8
multiple rings or mesh architectures and will have limited
applicability in 4G mobile backhaul infrastructures. » UMTS-based wireless broadband Internet system with voice
and other services added
While the CFM resiliency technique has advantages, such
as the ability to work across multiple rings and mesh
» Ultra Mobile Broadband
architectures, its inherent scalability is often challenged. In order
to achieve rapid failover in the 50-100 ms range, the CCM » Improved CDMA2000 mobile phone standard for next
interval must be ~10 ms. Depending on the number of tunnels generation applications and requirements
and services, a small CCM interval may overwhelm some
networking equipment. Some implementations, in » WiBro™
order to satisfy a given CCM interval demanded by the failover
» Service name for mobile WiMAX in Korea market
requirement, may sacrifice management plane responsiveness,
such as provisioning, traffic statistics collection and other
important tasks. Derivations of the CFM CCM approach include Summary
path-based failure detection and propagation. Such schemes Wireless carriers around the globe are faced with increasing
may improve failover determinism without causing undue stress demands for new mobile Internet services. These growing
on the networking equipment. service demands are driving a move to IP-based, high-speed
broadband services that only new 4G technologies can provide.
Relevant 4G Mobile Standards However, wireless carriers implementing 4G mobile
The following 4G mobile standards will benefit from utilizing technologies are realizing these new technologies place huge
IEEE 802.1Qay PBB-TE as a component of the wireless backhaul demands on their backhaul infrastructure. Carrier Ethernet’s
infrastructure: innovative new connection-oriented technology, PBB-TE, is
emerging as the ideal solution for meeting the demands of 4G
» IEEE 802.16 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access technologies. With PBB-TE, 4G mobile operators can create a
(WiMAX) robust, packet-based backhaul infrastructure that is scalable,
resilient and more cost-effective to install, operate and manage.
» Fixed, nomadic, portable, and mobile wireless broadband
connectivity without the need for direct line-of-sight to a
base station

» HiperMAN

» WiMAX variation created by the European

Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Broadband
Radio Access Networks (BRAN) group

» Operates in the 2-11GHz range and is seamlessly

interoperable with subset of IEEE 802.16a-2003

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