Fiber to Ethernet standards support mobile's explosive growth

With nearly 10 billion Internet connections active in the world today and another 40 billion expected over the next 6 years, it's safe to say that demand for broadband access is high. However, in many places it's mobile broadband and wireless support that is driving this accessibility, rather than wired networks. Furthermore, machine-to-machine connections, smart appliances and automobiles are contributing to this growth, not just the myriad of mobile devices in the average consumer's pocket. As such, mobile service providers are scrambling to support consumer needs and ensure their mobile backhaul solutions can stand up to the challenge.

According to TechRadar, more operators are turning to Ethernet to support their needs in these matters. Ethernet backhaul provides the most cost-effective solution, through inherent scalability and economy, as well as reliability and operations support. However, Ethernet isn't the only solution driving this growth. In fact, many firms are also optimizing their deployments with fiber optics, brining the flexibility and security of fiber-optic cabling to the wireless networks.

By running fiber to their towers then utilizing fiber to copper converters, operators are able to better support tower operations and streamline the delivery of data to their network. This keeps costs down while ensuring the stability of the network and addressing the "data deluge" problem, as the news source calls it. In addition, the standardization to Ethernet for both mobile and fixed networks will allow for seamless interoperability on a unified protocol platform over time, opening up further opportunities.

By upgrading tower infrastructure to Ethernet and implementing the appropriate media converter technology to seamlessly deliver high-quality data support between fiber and Ethernet connections, mobile networks will be able to optimize their architecture, reduce bandwidth congestion and improve the support of streaming media - one of many new high-demand services consumers utilize on a regular basis via mobile devices.

Ultimately, this will also provide the support these networks need for future upgrades as well, delivering the scalability necessary for further backhaul solution updates. The future growth of the wireless industry will depend on operators supporting the needs of consumer devices for high-speed bandwidth and unfettered broadband access. Rather than stunting industry growth, carriers will be supporting it with the best possible technology.

Perle has an extensive range of Managed and Unmanaged Fiber Media Converters to extended copper-based Ethernet equipment over a fiber optic link, multimode to multimode and multimode to single mode fiber up to 160km.