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Youarehere:Home>News>November19,2014

Mobilefronthaultransceivermarkettogrowandchangeoverthenextfiveyears
LightCountingMarketResearchreleasesreportandforecastformobilefronthaul(andbackhaul)transceivers,
20152019
ReadinChinese
Mobilefronthaulisakeyingredientoflowcost,highcapacity4Gmobilebroadbandnetworks,andisarelativelynewandfastgrowingapplicationforoptical
transceivers.NextweekLightCountingispublishingMobileFronthaulOptics,anewreportandforecastdescribingthisopportunityindetail.Ourresearchshows
thatfronthaulnetworkswillconsumemorethan14millionopticaltransceiversin2014,withamarketvalueof$530million,roughlyonparwiththeFTTX
applicationsegment.UnliketheFTTXsegment,however,webelievesalesoffronthaultransceiverswillgrowtomorethan$900millionoverthenextfiveyears,
drivenbyinitialdeploymentandsubsequentcapacityupgradesofmobile4Gnetworksaroundtheworld.Transceiversupplierswillneedtobenimbletocapitalize
onthisopportunity,however,becausefronthaultransceiverproductmixwillchangeconsiderablyoverthenextfiveyears.Theshareoffronthaulnetworksusing
WDMwillgrow,andtransceiverproductmixwillshifttoincludemorecoloredopticsaccordingly.Atthesametime,themixwillgraduallyshifttohigherspeeds,
someexceeding10Gb/s.VendorsarealsoatriskoffallingintoapricewarliketheonethathassuckedtheprofitoutoftheFTTXmarket,sincethereislittle
opportunitytodifferentiateonperformanceinthismarket.
MobilefronthaulcameaboutwhenseveralmobileRANvendorscreatedtheCommonPublicRadioInterfacestandard(knownasCPRI)in2003andthen
developedanewgenerationofbasestationradioequipment,calleddistributedbasestations,inwhichtheoldbasestationfunctionissplitintoabasebandunit
(BBU)locatedinasecurevaultorhut,andRemoteRadioUnits(RRUs),locatedatopcelltowersnexttotheradioantennapanels.Thecommunicationlink
betweentheBBUsandtheRRUsiscalledfronthaul,andopticalfiberisthepreferredmedium,forcostandperformancereasons.
BBUandRRUequipmenthasbeendeployedinsomehigherspeed3Gnetworks,butthedeploymentofLTEnetworksstartingin2011wasacatalystformore
widespreadadoptionofdistributedbasestationequipmentandmobilefronthaul.Remaininginitial4Gdeployments,andupgradesofexistingLTEnetworksvia
coordinatedmultipointandcarrieraggregation,willdrivefronthaulgrowthforthenextfiveyears.
Despitethesimilarityinnames,fronthaulisNOTsimplyanextensionofthebackhaulnetwork.BecausefronthaulnetworkscarrycellularRFtransmissiondatain
CPRIformat,fronthaulnetworksrequirelowerlatencyandhighercapacitythanbackhaul,andtypicallyoperateovershorterdistances.Fundamentallydifferent
solutionsarerequired,atthenetworkequipmentandcomponentlevel.
Themostcommonfronthaulsolutionsinusetodayaresimple2fiberlinksusinglowcostEthernetorFibreChanneltransceivers.Speedsrangefrom1Gb/sto10
Gb/s,with3,6,and10Gb/sbeingthemostcommontoday.Linkdistancesrangefromseveraltensofmeterstomorethan10kilometers,andbothmultimodeand
singlemodedevicesareused.Sincethissolutionisveryfiberrich,equipmentvendorshavedevelopedalternativesolutionsbasedondifferentformsofWDMfor
fiberscarcedeploymentareas.ThesesystemsservemultipleRRUsviadifferentwavelengthsonasinglefiberorpairoffibers.SKTelecomdeployedthistypeof
systeminconjunctionwithitsLTErolloutstartingin2011.
LightCountingisofferingits60pageMobileFronthaulOpticsreportandthewirelesstransceiverforecastspreadsheetasapackage,availableNovember25,
2014.Thereportcoverscurrentandfuturefronthaularchitectures,serviceproviderdeploymentstrategiesandtrends,componentrequirements,productssold
today,andproductsneededforfuturefronthaulsystemsarediscussed.Leadingvendorsoffronthaulequipmentandcomponentsareprofiledandhistorical
transceivershipmentdataisincluded,alongwithavisualguidetomobilefronthaulnetworkingequipment.
Theforecastspreadsheetcontainsafiveyearforecastoffronthaultransceivershipments,prices,andrevenues,brokendownbyfivespeeds,threereaches,and
greyvs.coloredoptics,andinadditionincludesabackhaultransceiverforecastwithsimilardetail.LightCountingsubscriptionclientswhowouldliketoreceivea
previewspreadsheetinadvanceofthereportcanrequestacopyfromReneeIsleyatrenee@lightcounting.com.
UpcomingConferencesandTradeshows:
OFC,LosAngeles,2226March,2015
IIRWDM,Nice,2225June,2015
ECOC,Valencia,September27October1,2015
LatestResearchfromLightCounting:
MarketUpdateReportandDatabase(October2014)
Marketforecastreportanddatabase(August2014)
StateoftheOpticalCommunicationsIndustryReport(June2014)
AboutLightCountingMarketResearch
LightCountingisaleadingopticalcommunicationsmarketresearchcompany,offeringsemiannualmarketupdates,forecasts,andstateoftheindustryreports
basedonitsanalysisofprimaryresearchwithdozensofleadingmodule,component,andsystemvendorsaswellasserviceprovidersandotherusers.
LightCountingistheopticalcommunicationsmarketsfirstchoicesourcefortheaccurate,detailed,andrelevantinformationnecessaryfordoingbusinessin
todayshighlycompetitiveenvironment.Privatelyheld,LightCountingisheadquarteredinEugene,Oregon.Formoreinformation,goto
http://www.LightCounting.com,orfollowusonTwitterathttp://www.twitter.com/lightcounting.

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