CALIFORNIA, USA: Mobile backhaul equipment is a hot market: carrier investments jumped a healthy 19 percent in 2008 to $4.6 billion worldwide and are expected to near $11 billion by 2013, as the Internet goes increasingly mobile.

The move to IP/Ethernet backhaul is well underway, but not without challenges. The strongest barrier to adopting IP/Ethernet backhaul is the lack of Ethernet services to cell sites, and many service providers are responding to the challenge by deploying fiber to their copper-fed cell sites, and offering services.

This was found in market research firm Infonetics Research's latest report, 'IP/Ethernet in Mobile Backhaul Networks: Global Service Provider Survey', which helps determine current carrier thinking about the drivers, barriers, and expected timing on the movement to IP and Ethernet backhaul.

Michael Howard, Infonetics Research's co-founder and principal analyst for carrier and data centre networks, said: "Operators and transport providers believe that packet timing/synchronization is not ready for 2G/3G voice traffic, so manufacturers should focus on development, interoperability, and deployment efforts to overcome the issues surrounding this perception."

Report Highlights
The top three events triggering IP/Ethernet deployment include deploying LTE, installing IP base stations with an IP lub interface or with Ethernet, and adding high capacity high speed packet access (HSPA+).

Respondent service providers perceive that there are challenges to overcome, such as timing/synchronization issues, and many therefore are pursuing a dual or hybrid strategy.

Sixty percent will leave voice traffic (still the main revenue source) on existing TDM backhaul facilities through 2011 or later.

By 2011, 73 percent will have voice and data on a single IP/Ethernet backhaul in parts of their network.

Fourty percent of respondents will have five percent to 10 percent of their cell sites backhauled using Ethernet microwave by the end of 2010.