As fixed and mobile wireless technologies move toward higher levels of convergence, the need for a consolidated metropolitan backhaul solution evolves. A number of wireless cellular technologies are evolving toward data services as well as convergence. Among these are; 3G cellular; IEEE 802.11 (WiFi); IEEE 802.16 (WiMax) WiBro These technologies enable services which are can be fixed, nomadic or mobile, in isolation or combination. The general goal is to provide a full suite of service offerings fully addressing customer needs for deliver voice + data + video services. In some cases, combinations of these technologies are targeted at market growth opportunities (i.e. cellular combined with WiFi allows the mobile service provider to gain revenue from both the wide area and local area networks as a means of displacing the fixed-wireline services). As the services evolve and converge, there is a growing need to provide significant bandwidth growth as well as backhaul consolidation for cost control. When considering this, there is a need to support the requirements of time-sensitive services whilst providing forward-looking, scaleable functionality through the exploitation of native Ethernet. This paper provides an overview of the convergence scenarios and presents metropolitan wireless Ethernet backhaul network solutions which can provide the necessary bandwidth, scalability, reliability and resiliency needed for cost-effective, carrier-class operation.
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