SNMP and Network Management: Wireless Mobile Backhaul Management Challenges

The explosive growth of mobile data services has placed greater demands on wireless backhaul networks. Network management has also become more complex due to the nature of packet-based transmission and the resiliency and flexibility characteristics of packet networks.

Currently, the management of wireless backhaul networks faces multiple challenges:

• Management of microwave networks that use different technologies, such as PDH / Hybrid / Native-Packet Point-to-Point, Point-to-Multi Point, etc. – and the handling of multiple types of services of different requirements.
• End-to-end service provisioning and QoS assurance, providing the same OAM experience as traditional SDH and MSTP networks.
• End-to-end resource and service performance monitoring for services transported across multiple interfaces (E1-TDM, E1-IMA, Fast Ethernet, etc.) and through Pseudowire (PW) technology in the last mile and segments backhaul aggregation.

To address these challenges, network operators and service providers are looking for the following features from their SNMP-based network management systems:

• Automatic detection of wireless devices and links: This feature minimizes NOC workload and simplifies NOC procedures during network deployments.
• Wizard-Based Ring and Chain Configuration and Configuration: The benefit of this feature is that it allows for faster and error-free network deployment.
• Ethernet Connection Wizard-based end-to-end provisioning: This feature simplifies the configuration of QoS, VLANs, etc.
• Monitoring performance and bandwidth utilization of the entire network: The benefit of these features is assisted capacity and expansion planning.
• Integrated reporting engine with great charting and aggregation capabilities – This feature eliminates the need for an additional/external tool for tracking and analysis.
• Fully customizable user interface and reports: The benefit of this feature is that the NOC is able to create their own procedures and tools within the management application.

Traditionally, mobile backhaul networks used point-to-multipoint (PtMP) and point-to-point (PtP)-based architectures. However, these architectures are of limited practical value in small cell applications, as they prove to be economically inefficient by current standards. For example, implementing PtP links to connect all small cell locations at street level can lead to complex and expensive multi-hop networks.

On the other hand, the exclusive use of Non Line Of Sight (NLOS) technologies, while overcoming microwave limitations and providing deployment flexibility, can also prove problematic, as NLOS is available at frequencies below 6 GHz where resources are scarce and licenses are limited. Really expensive.

The result is that today, operators increasingly choose to implement many or sometimes all architectures and technologies, trying to provide the best fit and maximize network efficiency. But this has a side effect on operations and specifically on SNMP-based network management systems that must evolve significantly to support network complexity.

summarizingTo efficiently manage complex mobile backhaul networks, SNMP-based network administrators must offer:

• Manage any backhaul – including 2G, 3G, Mobile WiMAX, 4G, and LTE.
• Manage any technology: fiber, Metro Ethernet, wireless PtP, wireless PtMP, as well as TDM, Ethernet and hybrid capable devices.
• Manage any topology: tree, star, rings and mesh
• Manage any frequency (for wireless): sub-6 GHz, microwave, E-band