Cell towers backhaul connections

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SAdata

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Does anyone with "insider knowledge" know what sort of connections the networks cell towers have to the internet/the networks own network? Like do they have 10mbps business ADSL or fibre, or microwave relays and the speeds assoicated with these? WOuld be really interesting, as this affects the 3g speed the most out of anything :p I can't imagine every tower has a fibre connection, because I remember reading about Vodacoms LTE and the struggle for them being securing fibre for their 4g towers :)
 
They would only use Fiber/ATM/ME/Microwave, never ADSL!

Mainly they use ATM links from Telkom, and microwave where no fixed line infrastructure is available.

But a lot of base stations are on Fiber optics, I would guess all 3G base station have 100mbps+ available to them in high traffic area's.

But for LTE you would need 1gbits+ backhaul to cope...
 
We have a number of cell towers on our properties and our network staff deal with the installers. According to them, the microwave backup links are rated for 5Gbps and they run multiples of 10Gbps over the fibres to the towers.
 
bruce_the_loon said:
We have a number of cell towers on our properties and our network staff deal with the installers. According to them, the microwave backup links are rated for 5Gbps and they run multiples of 10Gbps over the fibres to the towers.
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Possibly, but problem is, as these links are chained (from tower to tower) before reaching fibre backbone. So the first microwave link must accomodate traffic of all towers in the chain.
 
ATM links being leased lines? I see a lot of towers with microwave antennas if they are 5gbps I'm sure they link like 10 towers together to connect through one with a fibre connection to keep costs down. A dedicated leased line/rented fibre connection would cost them anywhere from R10 000 up per month? x Voda's 5000 3g towers equals R50 mil a month connection costs :p x 12 months equals R600 mil a year just on that :p
 
SAdata said:
ATM links being leased lines? I see a lot of towers with microwave antennas if they are 5gbps I'm sure they link like 10 towers together to connect through one with a fibre connection to keep costs down. A dedicated leased line/rented fibre connection would cost them anywhere from R10 000 up per month? x Voda's 5000 3g towers equals R50 mil a month connection costs :p x 12 months equals R600 mil a year just on that :p
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in some places lease on property is more than connectivity, Fibre links are around R5k and some properties that the operators lease are R20k +.....
 
Hummercellc said:
They would only use Fiber/ATM/ME/Microwave, never ADSL!

Mainly they use ATM links from Telkom, and microwave where no fixed line infrastructure is available.

But a lot of base stations are on Fiber optics, I would guess all 3G base station have 100mbps+ available to them in high traffic area's.

But for LTE you would need 1gbits+ backhaul to cope...
Click to expand...

2G - usually ATM, moved to microwave if co-located with 3G, usually only around 2mbps depending on configuration

3G - usually microwave, sometimes fibre if needed. anything from 2mbps - 50mbps depending on config.

LTE - fibre or microwave, 40 to 150mbps depending on configuration.

High traffic sites could exceed these values.

Microwave is more than capable of carrying LTE traffic, fibre is not a requirement unless you have more than 3 or 4 hops + 3G and 2G traffic on the same hops.
 
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