Mobile Experts, which provides insightful market analysis for the mobile infrastructure and mobile handset markets, released a new report titled “Backhaul for Small Cells.” The report indicates the extent to which small cells rely on wireless techniques and includes a five-year positive forecast for femtocells and picocells.

According to the report, the explosive growth of mobile traffic cannot be handled by LTE (News - Alert) architecture and emerging technologies like small cell architecture is an option to address future demands.

Given such a scenario, small cells will most likely be a critical part of LTE deployments as fiber is a scarce commodity.

"Carrier-deployed femtocells and picocells will be positioned on utility poles and streetlights, where fiber or copper backhaul will not be available," said Dr. Jonathan Wells, principal analyst at Mobile Experts, in a press release.

However, wireless backhaul is the most significant challenge with small cells, as the solutions need to not only be cheaper but also smaller.

Wells noted that wireless backhaul will be much more cost-effective than fiber in a widespread deployment of small cells. With high capacity backhaul required and with fiber unavailable, the ideal solution would be NLOS wireless Small Cell Backhaul architecture. This would help deliver improved capacity over existing solutions.

"We expect that backhaul technology choices will change over time," continued Wells. "Initial deployments of small cells must rely heavily on wireless techniques due to lack of fiber availability. Over the longer term, latency and throughput concerns will become a stronger consideration.”

With Operators implementing advanced features, Wells predicted that more than 1.8 million small cell wireless backhaul unit shipments would take place during 2016.

The report states that Aviat (News - Alert) Networks has the expertise to focus on the technology and innovations to make small cell technology a coverage and capacity solution. Details of the report, forecasts for femtocells and picocells, case studies, related whitepapers and more are available at the website.