CE 2.0-certified small cells enable 3G/4G mobile backhaul

At the 2013 Mobile World Congress, communications IC provider Vitesse Semiconductor and Fibrolan, a developer of integrated mobile backhaul platforms and Carrier Ethernet systems, held a technology demonstration showing low-power, wire-speed performance in 4G/LTE mobile backhaul networks. “Small cells become critical for carriers to grow both coverage and capacity in their 4G LTE networks as demand for LTE-capable devices surges,” contends Uday Mudoi, product marketing director at Vitesse.

The demonstration featured Fibrolan’s Falcon series of products. The company says its µFalcon-S, Falcon-M and Falcon-X platforms deliver a low power, highly accurate IEEE 1588 timing and synchronization approach for small cells, critical for backhauling LTE/LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) traffic. Powered by Vitesse’s Carrier Ethernet switch engines with the VeriTime and CEServices software stack, the Falcon was recently certified by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) as Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) compliant.

Fibrolan says its platform delivers the most comprehensive solution for small cell backhaul, including wirespeed performance up to 128-Gbps bandwidth for up to 10G links; high-accuracy 1588 implementation, including Transparent Clock; high availability; OTT content and application-aware optimization and caching; advanced and flexible quality of service (QOS) and service-level agreement (SLA) management; real-time measurement and monitoring; MPLS/MPLS-TP support; and low power, including the ability to support Power over Ethernet (PoE).

“Carrier-grade performance at low power is a must for 4G LTE backhaul solutions, particularly for small cells,” comments Shamir Stein, CEO of Fibrolan. “Vitesse’s Carrier Ethernet chipset and CEServices software were the clear choice as the platform for Fibrolan’s second generation Falcon series, as they delivered an industry-leading timing solution, required in mobile networks, with a quick path to CE 2.0 certification of our equipment.”

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