FEATURE MOBILE FRONTHAUL
synchronisation requirements to support the protocol, although there are advances coming along to address this.’ For Transmode, fronthaul presents an
interesting opportunity. Te company already had in its portfolio equipment that could be used, and has been testing it in these new applications. ‘Te technology we use for fronthaul we’ve had
for very many years and use for other things. It’s early days for fronthaul technology, but our equipment is tried and tested for us so it’s business as usual for us,’ he said. Tis, he explained, is an advantage for scaling
quickly. ‘Some fronthaul projects have the potential to be very big and there can be a risk in scaling manufacturing very quickly with totally new products.’ Transmode offers a range of components such
as WDM filters for hardened conditions and it has a range of options for fronthaul. First, it has its TG series, which are products for
Mobile fronthaul is creating excitement among many operators
passive WDM. ‘Tis passive range is very standard – we’ve sold more than 70,000 of these around the world and have built up a huge range of options over the years,’ Baldry explained. ‘If you are doing a fairly short-distance fronthaul this is a good option; you just plug it in and it’s a quick and easy fibre exhaust solution. Te only requirement is that the optics at the RRH and
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BBU to support C-RAN need to be WDM.’ Te company also has a semi-passive WDM
option, which is passive in the transmission channel but adds per wavelength optical monitoring and link status monitoring to the passive solution. Tis enables more real-time monitoring of the network to, for example, detect power loss at the cell site and the need for maintenance in the fibre plant, ‘giving passive some advantages that active networks have,’ according to Baldry. In addition, Transmode has two active options.
Baldry explained: ‘Te disadvantage with passive is if you are trying to span a long distance or if you have a ring architecture with many drop points you might be pushing beyond the power of the optics. Active gives more flexibility with how to build the network.’ Te company has had some simple
transponder-based solutions in its portfolio for many years and is currently doing field trials with operators on live radio networks using these for mobile fronthaul. It also has a multiservice muxponder-based
solution that can take anything up to 10 ports. Tis, he said, not only saves fibre but also increases efficiency. ‘We’ve created a new image for an operator for testing purposes supporting multiple fronthaul and multiple synchronous
28 FIBRE SYSTEMS Issue 3 • Spring 2014
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