There may be a vast number of opportunities for mobile fronthaul and backhaul on the horizon but improvements in protocols, standards and technology will also need to be made.
This was the message given today by Supriyo Dey, senior director Product Line Management at Source Photonics, speaking on the opening day of the ECOC 2018 Exhibition and Conference, taking place in Rome, Italy.
Dey commented: “While an exciting era of unprecedented opportunity is almost here in the shape of 5G, it comes with a set of challenges for the whole industry. The advent of this technology is undeniably huge, but there’s a real challenge for those who are hungry to develop its capabilities to match their expectations in terms of performance. Applications such as 3D video, augmented reality, UHD screens, self-driving cars and smart cities to name a few will need to be supported by mobile front and backhaul.
“With these advances in capabilities come new requirements – up to 10Gb/s data rate to support high quality video, ultra-reliable and low latency communication for autonomous vehicles and massive node communications for the Internet of Things.
“The current 4G optical fronthaul and backhaul architecture will not be adequate to support these new applications. While several optical fronthaul and backhaul solutions have been proposed, we have yet to see a clear winner.”
Dey’s observations were delivered at the ECOC18 Exhibition’s Market Focus, as part of an agenda that tackled topics ranging from FTTX evolution and next-generation data centers to optics as an enabler for 5G.
Source Photonics is also showcasing some of its latest products at the exhibition in the form of live demos. This includes a demonstration at the Source Photonics booth #416 with equipment testing experts Ixia, of its 400G QSFP-DD LR8 transceiver. In addition, the company will demonstrate its 25G SFP28 LR Lite which supports CPRI wireless and 25GBASE-LR applications.
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