How Verizon Partner Solutions’ Backhaul Solutions are Bringing 5G to Life

When talking about the 5G Revolution, most people think about faster speeds, better performance and improved dependability to stream, work or play. At Verizon Partner Solutions (VPS), we take it a step further—partnering with customers to provide things like increased capacity, lower latency, broadened availability and higher network reliability.?

On the capacity front, VPS’ Wireless & Infrastructure Solutions Center of Excellence is focused on connecting cell towers and small cells to the world to support bandwidth demand and make 5G a reality. This sharp demand in bandwidth compels wireless operators to seek competitive and scalable backhaul to maintain profitability while meeting or exceeding performance expectations.?

VPS is uniquely positioned to address wireless carriers’ need for cost stability and increasingly higher backhaul bandwidth. We have the experience to build networks and products that support the ever-evolving needs of 5G transport requirements.?

The Race to Deliver 5G?

This is a very exciting time in the wireless space as we are seeing the 5G Revolution come to life. New entrants are building brand new networks and carriers are augmenting their existing networks as they race to deliver 5G with the most speed and coverage. While each carrier has its own strategy to achieve that goal, they all need the ability to grow their 5G network while still supporting their 4G LTE customers.

?Recently, the FCC impacted the race for 5G with an auction for C-Band—a tool that enhances network coverage and gives wireless carriers the ability to upgrade existing towers, and build new ones. Being able to employ existing networks to deliver more volume is a huge advantage, as carriers can upgrade one site at a time to meet increasing capacity demands and leverage embedded capital investments to better manage infrastructure build costs.

As we read about the expectation of 5G to deliver at speeds much greater than 4G LTE, we don’t always think of the coverage and capacity needed to make that happen. The seamless connectivity and migration to 5G results in the acceleration of macro towers, as well as upgrades of existing towers to meet capacity needs for supporting 5G speeds and performance.?

Aligning with 5G Strategies

VPS looks deeply at the 5G ecosystem to understand how and where we can provide the most value to our customers. We strive to understand carriers’ unique requirements and develop and enhance our product portfolio to meet them. The demands for upgraded and new towers and capacity drive the need for backhaul that can carry the traffic and deliver seemingly instantaneous responses to consumers when using their 5G devices.

VPS is one of the first to offer a 10G Ethernet product that is scalable to allow customers to leverage existing Ethernet networks while expanding their capacity. We are able to support 10G to the cell site or tower using our Intelligent Edge Network (IEN), which provides the backbone needed for 100G handoffs utilized to deliver the 10G bandwidth.

The ability to scale 10G becomes very important as we see wireless carriers preparing for 5G with C-Band and augmenting their networks. VPS is one of the few providers in the market who can deliver 10G at scale—and with symmetrical speed—giving customers a large competitive advantage. Scaling also allows our customers to grow their networks when and where they have demands, allowing them to better manage their bandwidth utilization and augment their capacity as consumer demands increase.

Additionally, as wireless carriers seek different venues for cell sites, the environmental conditions are not always ideal. In these instances carriers are often looking for enclosures—which VPS provides as part of our product offerings. We are also fully committed to providing Ethernet and Dark Fiber services to customers, while also working with them on a migration path to new technologies.?

Our reliable network is the foundation for the products and services we build on, which allows VPS to offer scalable, symmetrical 10G Ethernet that our customers need to meet the increased capacity demands of 5G.?

Evolving with Our Customers

5G transport requires being able to deliver service with high speed and quality performances while increasing usage volume. This type of transport is akin to the road allowing for traffic to move smoothly and expeditiously. As 5G consumer demand increases, we need to ensure we have the roads paved smoothly with enough lanes to support the incoming traffic.?

VPS networks provide that reliable, smooth road, and our products help customers use that road efficiently to achieve the best results and customer experience. Our products build on that network to provide a 10G path that is easily deployable and meets carriers where they are now—while simultaneously opening doors to take them where 5G leads.

When wireless carriers were launching 4G LTE, VPS introduced its Fiber to the Cell (FTTC) product to augment their network build outs. We have continued to grow FTTC to support an ever-increasing subscriber base requiring more advanced, data-consuming applications.

As customer requirements evolve to support changing consumer needs, we have evolved with them. Our Ethernet backhaul product has been the foundation of our backhaul services, and now our Dark Fiber product serves as an alternative or complementary option depending on customers’ needs and objectives.

The Wireless & Infrastructure Solutions Center of Excellence supports this product set so we can partner with customers and utilize both Ethernet and Dark Fiber to provide the best overall solution. We recognize that our customers are looking for something easy to deploy while building for the future. While each situation is unique, we have the product experts, account teams, sales engineers and support to develop innovative solutions to address individual requirements.

Improving Business Outcomes

To understand the business outcomes resulting from 5G requirements, it helps to look back to see how far we have progressed in becoming an interconnected world. The emerging 5G network is analogous to the pre-internet world of the 1990s. When cell phones were first introduced, most of us saw them as simple mobile voice communication devices—we never dreamed that we would be using our smartphones or watches as essential staples of our daily lives.?

Likewise, it is difficult to dream of all the 5G applications that will materialize as technology develops. We know that the applications we are seeing now, such as autonomous cars and digital healthcare enablement, necessitate real-time responses that can only be delivered with a highly reliable network that supports low latency and higher availability.

?The reliable network needs to have the increased capacity to support an evolving 5G world, with the ability to add more “lanes” quickly and easily. Scalable, deployable solutions such as 10G Ethernet are a benefit in this ever-changing landscape.

VPS is committed to being an integral piece at the core of enhancing the customer experience through 5G.