Mobile Ubiquity

JAN 2013
.
ISSUE 68
33 34
eRelay simplifes wireless backhaul
eRelay simplifies wireless backhaul
As small cells gain industry momentum, their backhaul has become an ever more pressing issue,
until now; Huawei answers the call with its eRelay solution, which delivers robust performance
and ease of deployment, all at a cost that will help operators breathe easier.
By Li Wenqi
n July 20, 2012, the Red
Bull X-Fighters World Tour
t ook pl ace at Madri ds
La s Ve n t a s s t a d i u m,
Spains largest bullfighting arena. To
meet the communi cati on needs of
the more than 32,000 spectators, a
local operator deployed small cells to
cover the arena. This, in and of itself,
was not challenging. Te rub was that
the backhaul wiring had to remain
inconspicuous at this historic site;
eRelay, Huaweis wireless backhaul
solution, was the answer.
Small cell promise
Small cells are already in widespread
O
use for data offl oad and i mproved
i ndoor coverage. When cl ustered,
they create a new capacity layer on
t op of t he macro cel l s, f ormi ng a
heterogeneous network. Te benefts are
straightforward, as they enable enhanced
capacity over existing spectrum. ABI
Research predicts that the global small
cell market will hit USD14.4 billion in
2017, but their backhaul is a growing
concern.
There are currently three major small
cell backhaul options on the market
fiber, xDSL, and microwave. Fiber
delivers large capacity with little delay,
but there are tradeoffs in terms of
proximity and cost; xDSL can meet the
needs of basic backhaul, but it proves
inadequate in high-capacity scenarios,
while microwave supports line-of-sight
(LOS) transmission only. For non-line-
of-sight (NLOS) scenarios, additional
nodes are needed to convert NLOS
propagation paths into multiple LOS
paths, which inevitably increases the
total cost of ownership (TCO).
eRelay has your back
According to ABI Research, OFDM
NLOS will become the most popular
backhaul technology for small cells in
2017, thanks to its NLOS properties
and Point-to-Multipoint (PtMP) hub-
and-spoke architecture. Based on this
technology, Huawei has introduced
a wireless backhaul solution, eRelay.
JAN 2013
.
ISSUE 68
Huawei Communicate
33 34
Through its mix of economy, timeliness, and
performance, this solution tackles the small cell
last-mile backhaul challenges seen with hotspots,
indoor scenarios, and suburban areas.
Huawei eRelay consists of base stations and
remote radio nodes (RRNs), connected through
the air interface and centrally managed via the
M2000 management system. And whats more,
its base stations can be upgraded to support LTE
TDD through a simple update, protecting the
initial investment.
Easy deployment Base stations can be co-
located with macro base stations. Thanks to its
advanced distributed structure, an eRelay base
station is divided into baseband units (BBUs) and
remote radio units (RRUs). BBUs can be placed in
indoor cabinets or in Huawei outdoor integrated
power cabinets (APM30H) with power supply
in place, while RRUs can be mounted on poles,
towers, or walls, and installed near antennas to
reduce feeder loss and increase backhaul distance.
Similarly, RRNs can be mounted on poles or walls
near small cells, and powered via Ethernet (PoE).
PtMP Featuring PtMP technology, eRelay
base stations use directional sector antennas for
increased coverage and can each support multiple
small cells via corresponding RRNs. The air
interface can be shared and scheduled dynamically
between multiple RRNs, based on service priority
and data throughput, making for most efficient
usage. RRNs for one base station can forward data
directly amongst one another, enabling small cells
to exchange service data at the local level.
NLOS propagation Huawei eRelay supports
NLOS propagat i on, meani ng t hat angul ar
adjustment requirements for base stations and
RRN antennas will be less strict, making for
simplifed installation/commissioning, lower O&M
costs, and more flexible deployment in complex
environments.
Higher transmission bandwidth MIMO
and 64-QAM improve air interface throughput,
increasing the transmission bandwidth for a single
sector to 80Mbps for downlink and 50Mbps for
uplink.
Simple O&M management The M2000
system can be utilized for centralized maintenance
and upgrade of eRelay base stations and RRN
software, reducing O&M costs. Besides sending
alarms, M2000 can also analyze and display
channel qual i ty, as wel l as throughput, f or
base stations and RRNs. RRNs also have LED
indicators that aid fault diagnostics.
Technical highlights
L2 transmission As eRelay supports L2
transmi ssi on, there i s no need to reserve IP
addresses for base stations or RRNs, nor do
addi ti onal IP routes need to be confi gured.
Small cells are connected to RRNs via FE cable,
without the need for further confguration, which
reduces the IP routing for the overall network and
simplifes network confguration.
VLAN Huawei eRelay controls broadcast packets
within each VLAN to reduce unnecessary overhead
and improve overall transmission performance, while
also enhancing data security through transmission
isolation between diferent ones. Te M2000 enables
packet capture of source IP addresses, destination
IP addresses, or VLANs, specified at the Ethernet
port of the eRelay base station. Te captured packets
are buffered at the base station level and can be
downloaded to local workstations for further analysis.
Base stations can also facilitate routine maintenance
via loopback check for transmission ports.
Clock synchronization Synchronization is
key to any wireless system. High-precision clock
systems are critical to ensuring service integrity
during handover, while 3G technologies such as
TD-SCDMA and CDMA2000 also have strict
requirements for phase synchronization; both
methods are supported by eRelay, which uses
GPS or IEEE 1588v2 as clock sources for its own
synchronization, while supporting transparent
transmission of IP clock packets so that UMTS
and LTE frequencies are synchronized.
End-to-end QoS Huawei eRelay implements
the Differentiated Services (DiffServ) model for
end-to-end QoS. Internal queuing methods include
priority queue and weighted fair queue. Uplink and
downlink data are mirrored on the queues, based on
diferentiated services code point (DSCP) and VLAN
priorities. The system then schedules air interface
trafc according to the mirroring relationship between
internal queue and QoS class identifer.
The Huawei eRelay solution ensures QoS
through opti mal capaci ty pl anni ng, as i t i s
costly and wasteful to prepare backhaul capacity
according to the peak throughput for each small
cell; eRelay can strike the balance between cost and
capacity by setting the baseline capacity to equal or
double the average busy-hour throughput, ensuring
service quality and reducing deployment costs in
the process.
Editor: Yao Haifei julia.yao@huawei.com