The Merits of a Hybrid Broadband Network
Reading between the lines of rural Ireland's future, a future dependent on connectivity.
Published 21/11/18
Déjà vu. The term I use to describe every passing day in rural Ireland, deprived of access to the Internet. And, until we come together to make broadband a right, not a luxury, every day will see the deserting of another home, the closing of another business and the sucking of talent from another village. Bleak, isn't it?
All the while, we witness the exacerbation of the rural/urban digital divide as our politicians make the fatal decision to put optics before fibre optics, and by doing so, consciously toss the concerns of rural depopulation afar into the distance, a distance which will see them fumbling for the sight of a splice box or radio site. But, guess what, they won't find one: that's the reality of connectivity in rural Ireland.
We have been buried under a sea of suggestions as to how we should go about making universal broadband access a reality in rural Ireland, and those suggestions range from outright absurd to innovative and genius. Some will roar upon hearing the thought of using a wireless network for broadband, whereas others will enter a state of asphyxiation when they hear tell of the initial cost to roll out fibre all the way into every home and business on our island.
The fundamental goal of the National Broadband Plan has not changed: to breathe the power of high-speed broadband into the lives of 1.1 million people living in rural Ireland. If we do not proceed with this vision to strive for better as a matter of absolute urgency, the size of the catchment area for the National Broadband Plan will have dwindled beyond redemption as more and more people pack their bags and set sights on the capital, a city whose infrastructure has become overwhelmed and is no longer fit for purpose because of the severe swelling of its population.
All the while, we witness the exacerbation of the rural/urban digital divide as our politicians make the fatal decision to put optics before fibre optics, and by doing so, consciously toss the concerns of rural depopulation afar into the distance, a distance which will see them fumbling for the sight of a splice box or radio site. But, guess what, they won't find one: that's the reality of connectivity in rural Ireland.
We have been buried under a sea of suggestions as to how we should go about making universal broadband access a reality in rural Ireland, and those suggestions range from outright absurd to innovative and genius. Some will roar upon hearing the thought of using a wireless network for broadband, whereas others will enter a state of asphyxiation when they hear tell of the initial cost to roll out fibre all the way into every home and business on our island.
The fundamental goal of the National Broadband Plan has not changed: to breathe the power of high-speed broadband into the lives of 1.1 million people living in rural Ireland. If we do not proceed with this vision to strive for better as a matter of absolute urgency, the size of the catchment area for the National Broadband Plan will have dwindled beyond redemption as more and more people pack their bags and set sights on the capital, a city whose infrastructure has become overwhelmed and is no longer fit for purpose because of the severe swelling of its population.
Defining a Hybrid Access Network
Building a broadband network that can stand the test of time is expensive, and regardless of what we have been told, such a network will require extensive use of fibre optics in its design. The question embroiling the National Broadband Plan is how much fibre should we use, rather than should we use fibre at all. You see, the core network will require fibre, that's a fact, but the access network could, in theory, be composed of a hybrid fibre/wireless distribution approach.
Both fibre and wireless access networks have their own set of positives and negatives, so, why not use the two in conjunction with one another to achieve the best of both worlds? Fibre is more expensive to roll out initially but it boasts extreme capacity and it will be fit for purpose long into the future. On the other hand, a RAN is less expensive to deploy on a cost per premise basis (depending on the cost of radio spectrum) and offers greater flexibility in the planning stage, however, it sacrifices longevity. In essence, the two methods of connectivity are polar opposites, and that's a good thing.
Frankly, designing a broadband network for Ireland which makes use of as much fibre as possible today, complemented by a wireless standard such as 4G or 5G for the most remote of homes, with a plan to transition to 100% fibre in the near future is an approach worth considering. For one, it makes the upfront bill easier to swallow, and secondly, it ensures fibre plays an integral role in the network from the very beginning.
Both fibre and wireless access networks have their own set of positives and negatives, so, why not use the two in conjunction with one another to achieve the best of both worlds? Fibre is more expensive to roll out initially but it boasts extreme capacity and it will be fit for purpose long into the future. On the other hand, a RAN is less expensive to deploy on a cost per premise basis (depending on the cost of radio spectrum) and offers greater flexibility in the planning stage, however, it sacrifices longevity. In essence, the two methods of connectivity are polar opposites, and that's a good thing.
Frankly, designing a broadband network for Ireland which makes use of as much fibre as possible today, complemented by a wireless standard such as 4G or 5G for the most remote of homes, with a plan to transition to 100% fibre in the near future is an approach worth considering. For one, it makes the upfront bill easier to swallow, and secondly, it ensures fibre plays an integral role in the network from the very beginning.
How would this work?
A hybrid access network can be as flexible and versatile as we want it to be, and there are virtually no limits to the number of solutions that could be imagined. Examples of this approach can be seen across the world, just look at the (controversial) National Broadband Network in Australia. However, before we proceed, I feel the need to emphasise two fundamental points that cannot, in any circumstance, take a back seat during the planning or deployment stage of a hybrid network.
Fibre needs to be the backbone, the spine which supports the rest of the access network, otherwise, the entire network will flounder. Furthermore, we must instate a plan to expand the breadth of fibre to every home and business in Ireland within a certain timeframe. Essentially, the RAN will act as the interim bridge between no broadband, the desperate situation at the moment, and world-class connectivity, something that will be delivered only upon connection to a FTTH network.
An idyllic situation would allow us to deploy a 100% fibre optic network to the vast majority of the 542,000 premises covered under the National Broadband Plan. The premises which are deemed to be the most remote, inaccessible or unsuitable for FTTH connectivity should be given access to a competent wireless network until the rollout of a fibre access network is completed in its entirety.
Permitting the development of a situation in which some buildings can access both a wireless and fixed network, whereas others can't access any network whatsoever would be a fatal mistake. The question which occupies my mind is how such a wireless network, which needs to target specific areas for coverage, will be designed and deployed?
Fibre needs to be the backbone, the spine which supports the rest of the access network, otherwise, the entire network will flounder. Furthermore, we must instate a plan to expand the breadth of fibre to every home and business in Ireland within a certain timeframe. Essentially, the RAN will act as the interim bridge between no broadband, the desperate situation at the moment, and world-class connectivity, something that will be delivered only upon connection to a FTTH network.
An idyllic situation would allow us to deploy a 100% fibre optic network to the vast majority of the 542,000 premises covered under the National Broadband Plan. The premises which are deemed to be the most remote, inaccessible or unsuitable for FTTH connectivity should be given access to a competent wireless network until the rollout of a fibre access network is completed in its entirety.
Permitting the development of a situation in which some buildings can access both a wireless and fixed network, whereas others can't access any network whatsoever would be a fatal mistake. The question which occupies my mind is how such a wireless network, which needs to target specific areas for coverage, will be designed and deployed?
The Wireless Network
With wireless solutions, capacity is a precious resource due to the very finite amount of radio spectrum available. This raises some serious challenges that require thought, for example, who the heck is going to build the wireless network? The most obvious answer to that question is a mobile provider such as Vodafone, a company whose team posses serious knowledge in designing and deploying RANs in Ireland, or perhaps, a regional Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) provider such as Imagine.
The issue that concerns me with this approach is spectrum, and more specifically, the lack thereof. If Vodafone is told to provide coverage in a particular area, should there be a rule that states the company must use a high-frequency band, say 3.6GHz, which will provide greater capacity and longevity, but means Vodafone will need to construct more towers to achieve the same level of coverage? More importantly, however, if the National Broadband Plan states that the chosen provider must offer equal access to competitors, acting as a wholesale provider, is it reasonable that a competitor such as Three or eir could, in theory, hold a competitive advantage by having access to both their own spectrum portfolio and a chunk of that belonging to Vodafone?
And, let's not forget about the historical issues which have plagued wireless networks for decades. Every time a new wireless standard is announced, the one that came before fades into oblivion very quickly. This was true for the transitions from 2G to 3G, the same for the switch from 3G to 4G and is inevitable with the 4G to 5G leap. This is why we need to design an advanced wireless network which can support surging capacity requirements over a duration exceeding a decade. In practice, for a wireless network based on the 4G LTE standard, implementing techniques such as carrier aggregation, 256QAM and 4x4 MIMO all play an integral role in ensuring the RAN can stand the test of time.
Some people suggest that a new state-owned company should be set up to provide this wireless broadband, but where is the spectrum, the most basic building block of a wireless network, going to come from? We can't assume that ComReg can just take some spectrum from Vodafone or Three because the regulator would be slapped silly with lawsuits, and no doubt, there would be an uproar amongst mobile providers if ComReg reserved spectrum in an upcoming auction, such as the 700MHz repurposing next year, for the new company.
These concerns are just the very tip of an enormous iceberg, with most of the deployment challenges lurking beneath choppy water. It is of paramount importance that such questions are answered during the planning stage of any hybrid network. Because, believe me, we don't want to look back in five or ten years time and ask ourselves why we didn't do something differently. That was the case with the National Broadband Scheme, a major flop and an acute stain on wireless broadband, something which was rendered obsolete the second it rolled out.
The issue that concerns me with this approach is spectrum, and more specifically, the lack thereof. If Vodafone is told to provide coverage in a particular area, should there be a rule that states the company must use a high-frequency band, say 3.6GHz, which will provide greater capacity and longevity, but means Vodafone will need to construct more towers to achieve the same level of coverage? More importantly, however, if the National Broadband Plan states that the chosen provider must offer equal access to competitors, acting as a wholesale provider, is it reasonable that a competitor such as Three or eir could, in theory, hold a competitive advantage by having access to both their own spectrum portfolio and a chunk of that belonging to Vodafone?
And, let's not forget about the historical issues which have plagued wireless networks for decades. Every time a new wireless standard is announced, the one that came before fades into oblivion very quickly. This was true for the transitions from 2G to 3G, the same for the switch from 3G to 4G and is inevitable with the 4G to 5G leap. This is why we need to design an advanced wireless network which can support surging capacity requirements over a duration exceeding a decade. In practice, for a wireless network based on the 4G LTE standard, implementing techniques such as carrier aggregation, 256QAM and 4x4 MIMO all play an integral role in ensuring the RAN can stand the test of time.
Some people suggest that a new state-owned company should be set up to provide this wireless broadband, but where is the spectrum, the most basic building block of a wireless network, going to come from? We can't assume that ComReg can just take some spectrum from Vodafone or Three because the regulator would be slapped silly with lawsuits, and no doubt, there would be an uproar amongst mobile providers if ComReg reserved spectrum in an upcoming auction, such as the 700MHz repurposing next year, for the new company.
These concerns are just the very tip of an enormous iceberg, with most of the deployment challenges lurking beneath choppy water. It is of paramount importance that such questions are answered during the planning stage of any hybrid network. Because, believe me, we don't want to look back in five or ten years time and ask ourselves why we didn't do something differently. That was the case with the National Broadband Scheme, a major flop and an acute stain on wireless broadband, something which was rendered obsolete the second it rolled out.
Fibre Backhaul for the RAN
As I've stressed throughout this article, a wireless network is no network without fibre at its core. Relying on microwave backhaul from a radio site may facilitate our usage needs of today and tomorrow, but that straight-cut usability becomes murkier as we go five or ten years into the future. Get this, today's microwave backhaul solutions offer phenomenal capacity (with mmWave spectrum) compared to their counterparts of yesteryear, but such solutions are still bound to the same limits of physics.
FTTA is the future of backhaul for radio sites, even for those that serve a small number of users with low bandwidth requirements in rural areas. We must remember that the quality of a mobile network, or any network for that matter, is much more than just about how much throughput can be recorded over a ten second period. Other aspects such as response times, network stability in the form of lost packets and VoIP reliability are equally important. In virtually every case, FTTA provides a better experience on the RAN for end customers compared to sites that utilise microwave backhaul, and those benefits will be multiplied on dense sites which experience congestion.
The question that comes to light now surrounds the actual process of ensuring fibre backhaul can be supplied to every site deployed in this hybrid network. After all, we can't just pluck fibre out of the air. In Ireland, there are multiple dark fibre wholesalers whose sole purpose is to permit the piggybacking of retailers on their network. Trust me, you would be astonished to learn of just how much infrastructure is shared between providers, and it all comes down to the futility of duplicating network assets.
Let's imagine a situation to help you understand this shared approach, but please remember that I'm not an expert in network architecture. A small village requires coverage from a radio site operated by Three located on a hill nearby, however, there is no existing fibre infrastructure in the village. Three could "rent" part of eNet's MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) surrounding a large town nearby. Following on from this, the company may need to deploy a distance of fibre themselves to join their POP/POI with eNet's MAN. To complete the chain, there may be a section of fibre available on Aurora Telecom's network, a state-owned company which controls extensive dark fibre infrastructure, or on ESB's NTFON that could be rented to provide fibre backhaul to Three's radio site.
The above is, of course, an overly simplified explanation of a challenging and expensive problem. The continued growth of wholesale networks by companies such as SIRO and open eir will undoubtedly help to mitigate this issue. But, the fact still stands that providing future-proof wireless services won't be as simple as many people may have thought it would be. This difficulty stems from the fact that the aim of the National Broadband Plan is to provide universal access to high-speed broadband in Ireland, and no place, regardless of the topography, is deemed off-limits.
FTTA is the future of backhaul for radio sites, even for those that serve a small number of users with low bandwidth requirements in rural areas. We must remember that the quality of a mobile network, or any network for that matter, is much more than just about how much throughput can be recorded over a ten second period. Other aspects such as response times, network stability in the form of lost packets and VoIP reliability are equally important. In virtually every case, FTTA provides a better experience on the RAN for end customers compared to sites that utilise microwave backhaul, and those benefits will be multiplied on dense sites which experience congestion.
The question that comes to light now surrounds the actual process of ensuring fibre backhaul can be supplied to every site deployed in this hybrid network. After all, we can't just pluck fibre out of the air. In Ireland, there are multiple dark fibre wholesalers whose sole purpose is to permit the piggybacking of retailers on their network. Trust me, you would be astonished to learn of just how much infrastructure is shared between providers, and it all comes down to the futility of duplicating network assets.
Let's imagine a situation to help you understand this shared approach, but please remember that I'm not an expert in network architecture. A small village requires coverage from a radio site operated by Three located on a hill nearby, however, there is no existing fibre infrastructure in the village. Three could "rent" part of eNet's MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) surrounding a large town nearby. Following on from this, the company may need to deploy a distance of fibre themselves to join their POP/POI with eNet's MAN. To complete the chain, there may be a section of fibre available on Aurora Telecom's network, a state-owned company which controls extensive dark fibre infrastructure, or on ESB's NTFON that could be rented to provide fibre backhaul to Three's radio site.
The above is, of course, an overly simplified explanation of a challenging and expensive problem. The continued growth of wholesale networks by companies such as SIRO and open eir will undoubtedly help to mitigate this issue. But, the fact still stands that providing future-proof wireless services won't be as simple as many people may have thought it would be. This difficulty stems from the fact that the aim of the National Broadband Plan is to provide universal access to high-speed broadband in Ireland, and no place, regardless of the topography, is deemed off-limits.
A Day of Judgement awaits
As a problem now deeply engraved in Irish society, reversing a deprivation of high-speed broadband access requires a sea change in the way our telecoms market is regulated and in the way our government ensures the rights of its citizens are actually being fulfilled. The phenomenon of being fixated or obsessed with one solution isn't a bad thing, but it is if that fixation gets in the way of progress. And, even if I get blasted for saying this, the fixation that we should simply dump fibre in exchange for wireless solutions and vice versa is a detrimental approach to this problem.
Fibre is the future, the electricity of tomorrow, and the only existing technology which can facilitate our future requirements for capacity. Integrating fibre with a wireless solution, in a way that allows one technology to complement the other, is one of the many options which we, the people of Ireland, must consider. A hybrid access network could, in theory, increase the pace of deployment of high-speed broadband, something that would placate the Irish people, while shrinking the upfront bill for taxpayers.
The most remote of homes which are to be targeted with wireless coverage can act as a testbed before the arrival of a fixed fibre connection. When there is a significant number of subscribers on this wireless network, and the revenue being generated is sufficient, we can justify the extension of fibre to the remaining homes. This process can be repeated over and over again, moving from one rural community to another. Left in the wake of this deployment strategy will be universal access to high-speed broadband, the underlying contributor to the future of Ireland's economy.
Fibre is the future, the electricity of tomorrow, and the only existing technology which can facilitate our future requirements for capacity. Integrating fibre with a wireless solution, in a way that allows one technology to complement the other, is one of the many options which we, the people of Ireland, must consider. A hybrid access network could, in theory, increase the pace of deployment of high-speed broadband, something that would placate the Irish people, while shrinking the upfront bill for taxpayers.
The most remote of homes which are to be targeted with wireless coverage can act as a testbed before the arrival of a fixed fibre connection. When there is a significant number of subscribers on this wireless network, and the revenue being generated is sufficient, we can justify the extension of fibre to the remaining homes. This process can be repeated over and over again, moving from one rural community to another. Left in the wake of this deployment strategy will be universal access to high-speed broadband, the underlying contributor to the future of Ireland's economy.