Yesterday I attended a webinar called  ”Wireless Backhaul Gets Ready for 4G” hosted by Telecommunications. I have never given this topic much thought before and didn’t know much about it.

In the webinar, two telecom experts answered questions related to the use of Ethernet, microwave connections or a hybrid of both for wireless backhaul. 

Today I looked more into this and found an article on CED magazine (here) that talks about some of these backhaul solutions. The article asks this question:

Why do wireless operators rely on TDM services, and why haven’t they shifted to an Ethernet/IP infrastructure?

Most of the current systems are using TDM T1 connections and since data services are on the rise and the need of high speed and more bandwidth is vital for the success of such services, efficient backhaul solutions are needed which includes the use of Ethernet. At the end they came to this conclusion: 

“For wireless service providers who require TDM services to be transported in their native format, due to the latency, jitter, availability, and efficiency issues mentioned previously, a hybrid TDM/Ethernet platform provides the optimal wireless backhaul solution.”

For detailed information about this you can check the webinar and the article, both links are posted above.