Cellular Backhaul by Satellite

Backhauling More than 10,000 Cellular Sites across Africa, Asia and Latin America with the Hughes JUPITER System

For mobile operators looking to expand networks or meet Universal Service Obligations (USO), reaching new markets in ex-urban, semi-rural and rural areas is a challenging necessity. These markets are often located in areas where terrestrial fiber or microwave services are not readily available to support the backhaul links for base stations.

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The JUPITER Cellular Backhaul System can be implemented in a variety of scenarios, including:

• Traffic offloading: Cellular networks in many countries may not have a well-connected fiber-optic backhaul network. This leaves MNOs to either rely on upgrades to existing T1/E1 links or microwave backhaul, compelling the operators to alleviate bandwidth limitations or interference issues. Therefore, cellular backhaul over satellite links facilitates the need for high bandwidth and an extremely short time to deploy.
• Extending connectivity in rural areas: Deploying wired backhaul over difficult terrain like forests, mountains, or deserts involves heavy investments and meticulous planning for mitigating interference for microwave backhaul. In contrast, a satellite backhaul solution can be deployed within no time and at a significantly low cost of ownership.
• Cellular connectivity on wheels: In the event of a huge public gathering, where existing cellular network capacity may be throttled, MNOs may choose to temporarily deploy eNodeB sites to handle the additional data traffic. Satellite backhaul enables rapid and easy commissioning of these temporary sites. With a significantly lower CAPEX, and a short deployment time, the Hughes JUPITER Cellular Backhaul System incorporates advanced techniques to optimize the link between the eNodeB and the EPC, besides supporting the highest quality of service required for an LTE network, including: GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) acceleration, payload and header compression, fast track processing, and jitter buffer that are especially designed to achieve low latency (600 ms) and jitter (10 ms).

A hierarchical and comprehensive Network Management System (NMS) enables network operators to easily manage their network through a Web-based graphical user interface. The JUPITER NMS is a part of the JUPITER Cellular Backhaul System and can manage thousands of remote terminals and seamlessly interface with external OSS/BSS. Besides network management, the JUPITER NMS enables MNOs to identify several KPIs, including voice/packet statistics, backhaul link availability, and reliability to optimize the network for a better user experience.

Powered with a high-performance yet cost-effective terminal, the JUPITER System supports seamless integration with a variety of RAN technologies from different RAN vendors. Utilizing a built-in GPS receiver and implementing IEEE1588 PTP, these terminals can achieve clock accuracy in the sub-microsecond range, making it ideal for handling data and call flows using satellite backhaul.

The JUPITER cellular backhaul terminal is specifically designed to backhaul 4G/LTE traffic with additional processing and memory to process thousands of packet sessions and support higher throughputs. The terminal comes in two packaging profiles:  an indoor, rack-mountable unit that fits into a standard cabinet or an IP67-certified, all-outdoor enclosure. Both of these variants are available with AC and DC power inputs, support LTE acceleration, and can use either TDM or  MF-TDMA return channels, thus making it a truly universal system.