Mobile Backhaul

10.3 MBH Optimization Considerations

10.3.1 Economic Optimization

Economic optimization of the packet based MBH network is always a very important point of view. In general it does not mean optimization for the lowest possible cost (sometimes this may be the case) but for a high cost-efficiency and making timing of expenditures suitable for the mobile operator's economy. Therefore phasing of the MBH network building is also an important consideration. In addition, network running costs or OPEX also needs to be addressed – with new power-efficient and remotely manageable equipment significant savings are possible both in electricity bills and in network operations.

Comparable cost-efficiency values for different packet based MBH solutions are not necessarily simple things to define, as they should include – in addition to the cost of a certain network solution – also the achieved performance, e.g. network capacity, throughput, latency and reliability.

Possible use of leasing or network out-sourcing for the MBH implementation is also an important economic consideration – it will change some of the shorter term capital expenditures (capex) to medium or longer term more continuous operational expenditure (opex). This makes cost comparisons of MBH solutions more complex: net present values (NPV) or total costs of ownership (TCO) over several years for different solutions need to be compared. However, these types of calculations are dependent of many forecasts and assumptions (e.g. future ...