Mobile operators are already using HSDPA capability to promote new high-value mobile services in both the business and consumer markets, with hopes of being ready for the widespread adoption of true broadband mobile data. It is essential that widespread adoption include enhancements in the RAN, where more bandwidth is required to effectively support the speeds of HSDPA services.

Until the advent of HSDPA, operators have had the luxury of providing services with relatively low bandwidth requirements in the RAN. However, operators are marketing HSDPA with aggressive performance metrics in response to expected threats such as WiMAX. In order to meet customer expectations and provide a high-quality user experience, it is critical that HSDPA furnish the bandwidths advertised – even as the number of subscribers grows. Operators acknowledge that HSDPA threatens to increase bandwidth requirements in the RAN by 2x, 4x, or more.

To meet the requirement for increased bandwidth while simultaneously keeping the cost of HSDPA economically viable, the logical first step is to offload the HSDPA traffic onto a packet network. Separating the HSDPA traffic from the voice traffic, continuing to use lease-line E1s to backhaul voice and using a low-cost packet transport, such as DSL, to backhaul bursty HSDPA traffic makes sense.

Pseudo-Wire technology is the logical solution for matching HSDPA traffic to ADLS backhaul. In its broadest sense, Pseudo-Wire includes service emulation for transport of frame-based and cell-based services over MPLS, IP, and Ethernet networks. Because HSDPA uses ATM cells and ADSL modems use an Ethernet connection, Axerra’s Pseudo-Wire solution is a perfect interconnect technology.

Axerra’s Pseudo-Wire solution can be deployed today to offload HSDPA traffic using ADSL, but it can also enable backhaul over newer, higher-capacity transports and support true convergence of every generation of voice and data mobile service. New generations of services, including HSUPA and beyond (such as VDSL, copper bonding using Ethernet in the First Mile, and Carrier Ethernet over optical fiber), that offer ever greater speeds, especially in the upstream direction, are already on the horizon.

In fact, Axerra’s Pseudo-Wire solution is ready today to carry multiple generations of mobile services -- both voice and data -- over a single converged RAN. Axerra’s Pseudo-Wire solution uniquely combines circuit emulation and service emulation (TDM plus HDLC, Frame Relay, and the ATM needed for 3G UMTS and HSDPA) to enable backhaul of any combination of 2G, 2.5G, and 3G voice and data traffic, all over a single packet RAN. Axerra’s full-service Pseudo-Wire solution enables all generations of both voice and data over Carrier Ethernet, enabling mobile wireless providers to realize the true promise of convergence in the RAN and immediately profit from significant OpEx savings.

To access the full white paper, click here:"Pseudo-Wire: The Solution for HSDPA Offload"