At GITEX 2024, Zoran Lazarevic, Chief Technology Officer, Ericsson Middle East and Africa, discussed the organisation’s annual Microwave Outlook Report and some of the key findings, enabling the GCC region to adapt and prepare for what’s to come in the telco space.
A key focal point for Ericsson at this year’s GITEX was its annual Microwave Outlook Report. Can you tell us more about this year’s report and some of the key insights?
The report addresses a couple of topics. First, it highlights the need for backhauling capacity, which will grow. There’s going to be an increased need for backhauling capacity with the deployment of 5G in the mid-band and high-band. The report highlights that microarray is more than capable of serving those needs.
The report provides new planning methodology. Last year, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) proposed a new planning methodology which is more suited to current needs. The report also predicts how we think capacity will rise and capacity requirements.
Finally, the report highlights key trends and security threats we have in the micro network and how we can address them.
How will the projections highlighted in the report shape the telecommunications landscape in the Middle East for 2025?
Microwave backhauling is very important in the Middle East. In our previous report, it was highlighted that 70-80% of backhauling capacity will be conducted over microwave in the region.
Here in the GCC, we have a lot of fibre, but in Africa, backhauling over microwave is very important. And now, with the increased deployment of 5G, with deployment of 100 megahertz carrier in mid-band, 3.5GHz, 2.6GHz. We need a lot of capacity per site and that needs to be served over microwave which is fully fit to do so.
The report highlights that e-band in 80GHz has a lot of capacity and can reach sufficient distance to serve the increased traffic demands.
How should telco companies adapt to these upcoming trends and how can Ericsson’s solutions help to support such transformations?
E-band technology is something we’re seeing more and more to be used to serve increased capacity and here Ericsson can help. We have equipment with market-leading sensitivity, which directly reflects in how much capacity microwave link can provide or the distance it can reach as well as the size and weight of equipment.
In terms of the future, we can help with planning microwave links following new ETSI planning guidelines, so we can help customers with market-leading equipment as well as with microwave links planning.
The report includes a ground-breaking five-year forecast for backhaul capacity in the 5G era – can you tell us more about it and what this will look like?
The forecast is something we have been doing since 2014 and it has been quite accurate. This kind of forecast isn’t straightforward – we need to consider a lot of inputs such as traffic demand, technology capability and capability of devices.
Then we need to consider different network architecture for each of the operators, different spectrum assets. All these factors need to be considered to come up with a reliable forecast.
The forecast is based on the kind of deployment our customers are having – is it 4G with selective 5G deployment, which is the first category.
Then we have 4G with continuous 5G deployment in the mid-band. And then finally we have continuous 5G deployment in mid-band with selective high-band deployment. High-band deployment is requiring the highest capacity.
And then, we are presenting a five year forecast based on three types of urbanisation: rural, suburban and urban. This forecast is very important input for our customers so they can understand capacity requirements and plan how they’re going to serve these growing demands.
