Taking Mobile to Rural Africa

The Vital Role of Hybrid Satellite–Microwave Backhaul

• Hybrid Backhaul
• Q & A
• Whitepaper

Facts on Intelsat and Cellular Backhaul

• Became the first satellite operator to offer satellite-enabled services in Africa, introducing pan-regional broadband networks and cellular backhaul services.
• Delivers backhaul services to nearly 60 mobile telecom operators in over 40 countries including those on the global top 10 Mobile Operator’s List.
• Currently supports nearly eight out of 10 mobile groups in Africa, representing 64 percent of the region’s subscribers.
• Continues to bring thought leadership and adopt solutions - such as for example Carrier Cancellation and Hybrid Backhaul - that incorporate technologies for significantly increasing network efficiencies and significantly reducing Total Cost of Ownership for backhaul customers
• Proactively partners with consultancies, subject matter experts, industry analysts, and other members of the wireless value chain to grow the ecosystem and increase its value-add

What is Cellular Backhaul?

Cellular Backhaul (CBH) is the transport of traffic from a cellular network to a core network where voice and data switching takes place. This transport of traffic can be over various transport mediums such as copper, fiber, microwave, or satellite.

What is Hybrid Backhaul?

Hybrid Backhaul combines satellite and microwave technologies for backhauling. A cluster of cellular base stations that are in close proximity of each other (e.g. within a single microwave hop distance of 30 kms) are aggregated using microwave backhaul.  Connectivity from this aggregation site to core network that is multiple hops away can be provided via satellite backhaul, instead of building expensive and time consuming microwave repeater sites.

How does Hybrid Backhaul compare to Satellite Backhaul?

Satellite Backhaul is generally preferred for connecting settlements with small populations across long distances. Hybrid Backhaul is preferred when neither the population sizes nor the distances to contiguous network (i.e. existing backhaul network) are small.

How does Hybrid Backhaul compare to Microwave Backhaul?

Microwave Backhaul is generally preferred for connecting settlements with large populations across small distances. Hybrid Backhaul is preferred when large populations are more than a few microwave backhaul hops away from contiguous network (i.e. existing backhaul network).

Why is Hybrid Backhaul important?

Hybrid Backhaul lowers the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) compared to Microwave Backhaul especially when trying to expand coverage to new settlements that are multiple microwave hops away but do not have corresponding population size to justify costly and time consuming microwave repeater site build outs.

For example, in one of the scenarios analyzed, the TCO for Hybrid Backhaul was about 37% lower compared to TCO for Microwave Backhaul for settlements with population size of 25,000 people that were located 90 kms away from the contiguous network. The population density for the new coverage area was 50/km2.

Who benefits from Hybrid Backhaul?

Hybrid Backhaul benefits many ecosystem stakeholders. With lower TCO of Hybrid Backhaul:

• Mobile Network Operators can expand network coverage; grow their subscriber base and revenues
• Satellite Operators can provide satellite backhaul capacity for network expansion
• Satellite Ground Equipment vendors can supply ground segment terminal for network expansion
• Microwave Equipment vendors can supply microwave backhauling equipment for new coverage
• Digital Divide can be reduced due to network expansion into previously un-served areas

Are there any challenges with Hybrid Backhaul?

Satellite and Microwave though different technologies, have remarkable similarities as well. For example, both use wireless mode of transport, need frequency spectrum to operate, can support point-to-point and point-to-multipoint solutions, etc. However from deployment planning perspective satellite backhaul is simpler due to large geographic coverage of satellite. Most regions of world have both microwave and satellite networks deployed, so dual technology expertise being available within the same network operating company should not be an issue. If that is not the case, then, missing skill gap can still be easily covered via readily available expertise via third parties such as service providers and system integrators. Another factor is satellite backhaul and microwave backhaul ownership models – leased vs. owned respectively. However, such differences are already widespread for example in the terrestrial world, where leased lines are used for copper and fiber but wireless connectivity via microwave is provided via own network.