Infinera, a provider of Intelligent Transport Networks, expanded its Mobile Fronthaul and Mobile Backhaul Solutions to support mobile operators as their networks evolve to become 5G-ready. Infinera introduced a range of flexponders for mobile fronthaul and a new EMXP Access Unit for mobile backhaul to extend the capabilities of XTM Series-based solutions, providing investment protection and meeting performance requirements for mobile operators as networks scale to 5G.
5G mobile networks bring the promise of enabling the Internet of Things, high-speed mobile broadband, and ultra-reliable services – all of which are driving the need for higher capacity and lower-latency mobile transport. As 5G radio access networks (RAN) are expected to be fully standardized and ready for deployment by 2020, mobile operators need fronthaul and backhaul solutions today in order to have wireline infrastructure in place to fully support 5G deployments.
The ability to evolve to future 5G requirements is a key factor in Infinera’s Mobile Fronthaul and Backhaul Solutions recently announced. As 5G standards evolve, multiple future fronthaul scenarios exist that could lead to network investment dead-ends if deployed fronthaul solutions are not able to adapt. There are a number of critical attributes of a solution that can support 4G today and evolve smoothly to 5G in the future:
Low latency and highly accurate synchronization. Advanced 5G applications, such as autonomous vehicles, require extremely low latency and high-performance network synchronization in both fronthaul and backhaul networks.
The solution must be reconfigurable in software to support anticipated fronthaul protocol changes and must include hardened and non-hardened platform options to support different deployment environments. The solution must also be fully programmable via software-defined network (SDN) controllers and orchestrators, and able to support any 5G radio solution.
Infinera Packet-Optical Mobile Backhaul Solution. Infinera’s Mobile Backhaul Solution now includes a new EMXP Access Unit that extends Infinera’s range of packet-optical transport switches to hardened environments such as street and cell site cabinets. The new unit supports a common software and feature set with the rest of the EMXP range, which includes Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) services, low latency, superior Synchronous Ethernet and 1588v2 synchronization and sophisticated network resilience options.
“Mobile operators are increasingly looking to deploy Cloud RAN commercially for LTE Advanced Pro and expect the technology to play a key role in 5G,” said Gabriel Brown, principal analyst, Mobile Networks and 5G at Heavy Reading. “Among the challenges operators face are diverse implementation options and uncertainty about the functional split in the 5G RAN, making it critical that high-performance fronthaul transport solutions are sufficiently flexible that they can be upgraded, in software, to meet future requirements.”
“The mobile industry is on the cusp of a step change to 5G. While the radio network needs to radically transform to the new 5G infrastructure and services, the underlying transport network requires a seamless evolution that protects operator investments now,” said Sten Nordell, CTO Metro Business Group at Infinera. “One key aspect to this is the ability to support future 5G mid-haul and cross-haul architectures in a truly open transport environment without lock-in to the radio vendor. We are already working with key players in the industry to allow pre-5G networks to be tested against high-performance transport networks.”
