BROADBAND FORUM ANNOUNCES SPECIFICATIONS FOR
MPLS IN MOBILE BACKHAUL IN 4G/LTE NETWORKS
News Highlights
Broadband Forum’s new Technical Report 221 (TR-221):

Empowers operators to combine TDM, ATM, Ethernet and IP services over a converged
backhaul network using standard MPLS

Allows for easy migration to 4G/LTE, supporting explosive growth in mobile data
traffic
London, 08 December, 2011 – Announced today at the LTE/EPC and Converged Mobile
Backhaul conference in London, the Broadband Forum has published its new “Technical
Specification for MPLS in Mobile Backhaul Networks” (TR-221), which is set to become a key
enabler for mobile operators as they migrate from traditional TDM networks to packet-based
transport technologies and from 2G/3G to 4G and LTE services. TR-221 provides a key
resource to the industry as it gears up for explosive growth in IP traffic driven by new and
enhanced devices on the mobile market, from tablets and smartphones to multifunction
gaming consoles.
Based on recent mobile traffic forecasts put out by both Cisco1 and Ericsson2, growth in
global IP traffic continues to rise exponentially and by 2015 is expected to reach around 81
exabytes (1018 ) per month: the equivalent of 20 billion DVDs, 19 trillion MP3s or 500
quadrillion text messages. Estimates also show around 15 billion fixed and mobile networked
devices and machine-to-machine connections by that time. Mobile video is likely to make up
around two-thirds of mobile data traffic, an increase of 35-fold from 2010 to 2015. For
service providers this presents a significant challenge in ensuring that their networks are
flexible and can handle such large volumes of data while delivering the necessary service
performance and quality of experience to their customers.
1
2
“Mobile Data Traffic Forecast”, Cisco Visual Networking Index, 2011
“Ericsson: Mobile data traffic to increase 10X by 2016”, Ericsson, 2011
Many operators are responding by migrating their mobile networks to next generation 4G/LTE
and require a comprehensive and optimized solution for their backhaul. MPLS provides the
unique capability allowing service providers to converge their disparate networks by
combining TDM, Frame Relay, ATM, Ethernet and IP services into a single multi-service
environment, merging their disparate 2G, 2.5G, 3G and 4G/LTE mobile networks into a single
converged architecture.
“TR-221 is a significant step forward for the industry,” commented Ihab Tarazi, vice
president of global IP and transport planning and technology for Verizon. “In the face of
growing demand for bandwidth and quality of service from our users, we have been a keen
participant in the development of the Broadband Forum’s new technical specifications. We
hope to closely engage with members and partners regarding TR-221 to achieve a scalable,
easy-to-manage and cost-effective mobile backhaul architecture that delivers services
rapidly, economically and with quality to our mobile customers.”
TR-221 focuses on the applications of MPLS technology in a range of services that may be
used to transport wireless traffic in the access and aggregation networks, including IP, TDM,
ATM and Ethernet. It defines the global requirements of MPLS technology in these networks
in respect of encapsulation, signalling and routing, QoS, OAM, resiliency, security and
synchronization. It also covers expected services over the backhaul network that include
voice, multimedia services, data traffic, and multicast traffic such as multimedia broadcast
and multicast services (MBMS). Adherence to these requirements will create global standards
for MPLS oriented equipment, establishing more network interoperability, speeding
deployments and lowering the overall costs of the backhaul network.
Defining a range of reference architectures for MPLS based Mobile Backhaul networks; TR-221
includes specifications for the various transport scenarios applicable to all mobile networks
(e.g. 2G, 3G and LTE). It also specifies the equipment requirements for the control, user and
management planes to provide unified and consistent end-to-end transport services for
mobile backhaul.
Robin Mersh, CEO of the Broadband Forum, said: “TR-221 is a critical part of establishing
multi-vendor interoperability in converged MPLS based backhaul networks. As mobile
operators look to preserve their investment in traditional TDM and ATM networks whilst
developing their 4G/LTE architectures, TR-221 will enable them to integrate new packetbased MPLS technologies into their established networks. Operators will be able to evolve
their networks to be faster and more efficient to meet the increasing multimedia needs of
the mobile user, whilst preserving a lower cost per bit in the backhaul network.”
- ENDS –
For further information please contact Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 7899 914168 or Sheila Lashford
on +44 (0) 7986 514240 or by email to brian.dolby@proactive-pr.com or
sheila.lashford@proactive-pr.com
About the Broadband Forum
Broadband Forum, a non-profit industry organization, is focused on engineering smarter and
faster broadband connections. Our work defines best practices for global networks, enables
service and content delivery, establishes technology migration strategies, engineers critical
device & service management tools, and is key to redefining broadband. Our technical
reports and free white papers can be found at www.broadband-forum.org.