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In recent years, mobile data traffic has been growing rapidly around the world. Mobile data traffic in emerging markets has huge growth potential, with a recent study finding that the combined Middle East and Africa region leads global data traffic growth with a compound annual growth rate of 71%. It is estimated that by 2020, the total amount of data traffic in emerging markets will be seven times its 2015 level. In view of this growth trend, many emerging market countries have released a national broadband plan to develop mobile infrastructure and improve national broadband coverage, meeting the Internet access requirements of a large number of people currently unconnected.
Emerging market operators face difficulties in infrastructure construction, especially due to tight budgets, costly and time-consuming fiber deployment, and long return on investment (ROI) period. Considering all network construction factors, it is clear that a low-TCO solution improves ROI.
To meet the requirements of emerging markets, Huawei continues to innovate in the mobile transport field and use leading technical solutions to promote emerging market broadband network development. Huawei has designed its innovative 5G microwave transport solution to meet the demands of emerging market operators. Thanks to continuous innovation of microwave technologies and improved spectrum efficiency, the solution enables upgrade and evolution based on existing site resources. That is, it not only satisfies the service bearing requirements of 2G/3G/4G, but also supports smooth evolution to future 5G so initial investments can be used longer without hardware replacement.
10Gbps High-Bandwidth
With capacity improvement technologies such as CA and MIMO, microwave devices provide 10GE to site and achieve 10Gbps high-bandwidth using either common-band or E-band. In addition, common-band can be bound with E-band to provide 10Gbps transmission over a long distance of 7 km. In emerging market areas where fibers are difficult to deploy, operators can use microwave devices to provide fiber-like transport solutions. With microwave devices, networks can be quickly constructed to improve broadband coverage, bringing more people online.
TCO Reduction
The dual-channel 2CA outdoor unit of 5G microwave can be upgraded (from 1 to 2 carriers, and then to 4 carriers) through software, cutting the delivery cost in half. Moreover, transforming single-polarized antennas to dual-polarized antennas is 30% cheaper than traditional antenna replacement. The modular antenna design achieves microwave capacity expansion by replacing only small-sized feeders rather than replacing all the antennas and adding relevant devices to the tower multiple times — this reduces TCO by 20%. With these innovative solutions, 5G microwave helps emerging market operators reduce upfront costs during network expansion, breaking even more quickly while improving broadband coverage.
In the past year, the solution of transforming single-polarized antennas into dual-polarized antennas, together with the MIMO solution, has been deployed to serve more than 200 million users in countries such as India and Bangladesh. More than 1000 hops of dual-band microwave links have been deployed in Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar and the UAE. Half of these hops are used to provide broadband services in areas without fibers. In addition, 5G microwave has been deployed to provide broadband services such as voice and video calling and IPTV for hundreds of residents in remote mountain villages in Wushan county and Liangshan county, in China's Sichuan province.
Huawei will continue to cooperate with operators around the world, especially operators in emerging markets, to enhance the capabilities of 5G microwave solutions and build future-oriented, highest-value mobile broadband networks to bring global network development to everyone.
For more information about 5G microwave, please visit Huawei 5G transport network solution homepage online: http://carrier.huawei.com/en/solutions/all-cloud-network-towards-5g/x-haul