Pure packet radio backhaul shipments increased 6 percent in Q2 2010

MONTREAL, CANADA & BARCELONA, SPAIN: Pure packet radio backhaul shipments increased 6 percent in Q2 2010 while overall point-to-point microwave backhaul shipments decreased 4 percent, according to Maravedis' latest report, "Wireless Backhaul Market from an All-IP Perspective."

Drawing from in-depth interviews with backhaul vendors and operators worldwide, the report provides a detailed look at wireless backhaul technology, regulatory and market trends.

Maravedis believes the overall wireless backhaul market growth will kick-start again in 2011. "The need for greater capacity in 4G deployments will continue to drive the need for investments in backhaul, including the emerging field of radios in the 60 GHz, 80 GHz bands and Free Space Optics," said Esteban Monturus, author of the report.

Besides more capacity and a wider range of frequencies, vendors are also innovating advanced networking capabilities that include packet prioritization for greater policy management and end-user experience. "In addition to MEF certification, operators are also keen on better monitoring the performance of their backhaul networks. OAM (operation and maintenance) standards are being implemented to add this functionality," commented Maravedis Research Director Adlane Fellah.

Select report findings
* Between Q1 and Q2 2010 microwave shipments grew only in CALA (15.6 percent).
* EMEA continued to gather most of microwave shipments (48.8 percent).
* TDM microwave shipments decreased 26.4 percent in Q2 2010 to $126.43 million.
* Hybrid microwave shipments represented 69.6 percent of total quarterly shipments.
* Ericsson was the microwave shipment leader in Q2 2010 (18.5 percent market share), followed by the ever-growing contender Huawei.
* Ericsson also lead quarterly TDM shipments, while Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei headed pure packet and hybrid shipments, respectively.
* Of all vendors covered by the report, only Exalt and DragonWave embed payload compression techniques.
* None of the microwave vendors covered in the report have noted a substantial demand for IPv6 support.