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Perspective on MPLS-TP and Thoughts on LTE
	by Nir Halachmi, Product Line Manager Nir Halachmi has returned after back-to-back participation at two very important Carrier shows in Europe – the MPLS & Ethernet World Congress and the Mobile World Congress.  He’s presented us with some of his thoughts on up and coming technology from each of these shows.

MPLS & Ethernet World Congress was all about MPLS-TP this year.

MPLS-TP (Transport Profile) is a specific type of MPLS targeted to be used in the transport networks designed to be more cost-effective than VPLS and IP-MPLS. MPLS-TP has omitted the use of the MPLS signaling protocols and is counting on a manual configuration of the LSPs or use of centralized management system. In addition to that the MPLS-TP is taking a different approach to accomplish signaling standards by the using standards-based OAM tools to create a protocol that resembles SONET/SDH OAM. MPLS-TP is being standardized by the IETF with support from the ITU-T. The ITU-T passed recommendation last week to use Y.1731 for OAM, and the debate about the final standard continues.

Telco Systems participated in the EANTC testing of MPLS-TP at MPLS & Ethernet World Congress with our T-Metro 7224 device that served as an MPLS-PE connected to an MPLS-TP supporting device.  While we showed that service continuity was possible, it was evident that there are still many issues which need to be finalized in order for MPLS-TP to be adopted. We also concluded that MPLS-TP will require that a large amount of the network intelligence pass through the management system in order to make it a practical solution. 

Another very hot topic in both shows was the mobile backhaul revolution. The mobile data surge, together with the LTE and LTE-Advance standards, represent many changes both in technology and in the business models and opportunities for operators and providers in this domain.

The need for higher bandwidth is driving mobile providers to look for solution that will allow them to support it. Femto and pico cells are smaller base stations that have been designed to support smaller areas. They allow the mobile operator to offload the larger cell traffic and offer higher bandwidth in small location typically with higher population density.

As the price of femto and pico cells drops, mobile operators will deploy increasingly more of these smaller base stations to accommodate high density user areas such as shopping malls, convention centers and transportation centers. This means that the cost center of the mobile operator network will shift to mobile backhaul.   This will require that the mobile operator lease more and more services from the wholesale providers who already have a footprint in the service area, clearly creating a huge opportunity for utilities, wholesale providers and even the incumbent fixed broadband operators to provide the infrastructure that mobile operators will require for mobile backhaul.

But these opportunities come with additional requirements like time synchronization , CES, OAM, and tight QoS support. We have seen that 1588v2 is gaining momentum, yet SyncE is becoming more common, thus confirming our belief that the mobile backhaul network will be a hybrid time synchronization technology network.

The increasing demand for bandwidth combined with new mobile equipment like smartphone, tablets, laptops etc. is creating new challenges for mobile operators.  That’s why we are targeting our solutions to address not only the bandwidth and synchronization demands but also provide the ability for operators to optimize their existing infrastructure in order to minimize both CAPEX and OPEX.

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