Nokia on Thursday unveiled a new suite of mobile transport products just ahead of Mobile World Congress next week, including what it dubbed “anyhaul” solutions for 5G.
The rollout is part of Nokia’s effort to get in on the ground floor with next-generation SDN and virtualization. The new products in the mobile transport space include the Wavence Microwave Portfolio, the 7250 Interconnect Router R6, new anyhaul functionality for the 1830 Photonic Service Switch, and the 7360 ISAM access node and 7368 ISAM ONT optical network termination devices.
“With the advent of 5G just around the corner, mobile operators are looking forward to a new era of denser radio networks, new spectrum, dramatically higher bandwidth and ultra-low latency,” John Byrne, GlobalData service director, observed. “But for all its promise, 5G will make transport networks infinitely more complex, requiring extreme flexibility across the entire network spanning fronthaul, backhaul, and core.”
The Wavence Microwave Portfolio is part of Nokia’s effort to get a head start on multi-gigabit microwave transport and SDN. The product family includes the ultra-broadband transceiver twin, a ‘dual carrier in a box’ radio; and the ultra-broadband transceiver 80, a compact E-band radio. Wavence replaces the 9500 Microwave Pocket Radio family.
A new IP/MPLS router, the 7250 Interconnect Router includes support for Ethernet fronthaul and other next-generation interfaces. It includes terabit-scale and low latency, and is interoperable with Nokia’s other IP/MPLS product families.
The Nokia 1830 family encompasses new Integrated Packet Transport cards for the 1820 Photonic Service Switch, which address Ethernet anyhaul applications and include extremely low latency. The 1830 Versatile WDM Mobile (VWM) also offers optical protections switching for WDM fronthaul traffic.
Nokia also demonstrated a method for using 5G wireless spectrum as a delivery mechanism for 5G services. The entire portfolio has been designed to host 10 Gbps cell site connections. Further future-proofing comes from a 5G wireless mmWave-based small cell deployment, which manages its own load and efficiency using an in-band meshed network.
“What we’re doing with the ISAM family is we have new line cards that operate at 10 Gbps but take into account the need to reduce the processing delay within the node, within the line card itself,” Jim Guillet, senior director for product marketing at Nokia, explained.
According to Guillet, the increasing number of cell sites and the change in processing – which is now done at a central location instead of in conjunction with the packet core as in traditional backhaul – required a new look at transport.
“The diversity of cell sites and connection models is getting bigger as opposed to smaller. We know that in time more cell sites will be deployed,” Guillet observed. “All these changes are driving from a ‘how do I reach those sites?’ that has to become far more flexible and far more versatile. It would be nice to have fiber cable running everywhere, but the reality is either it isn’t (there) or it’s too expensive. So you need things like microwave.”
The key, he said, is versatility and flexibility in the physical infrastructure, as well as keeping cost manageable. That requires both supporting the current infrastructure and planning about five years ahead.
“In this anyhaul world we envision that with the dynamic mesh that has to be created for these mobile elements, you’re going to need all these technologies. You’re going to need the same in optical and PON…As a company that provides all of these parts, we think we’re in a good place,” he concluded.
Filed Under: Wireless • 5G and more, Infrastructure