The MFA Forum, which promotes deployment of multi-protocol label switching, has launched a new initiative to address the role of IP/MPLS for backhaul transport of traffic from mobile radio access networks.

The agency’s MPLS Mobile Backhaul Initiative (MMBI) arrives on the scene as the industry has already begun to assess the value of using IP-based transport to efficiently and inexpensively backhaul growing mobile broadband traffic. The MMBI’s goal is to help service providers to move from TDM-based or ATM-based backhaul architecture that they use now to MPLS-enabled networks.

"With ATM-to-packet network migration and increased bandwidth demands of 3G services such as HSPA+, mobile backhaul is addressing the service operators need for cost and operational efficiencies," said Yannick Le Goff, Mobile Backhaul R&D Project Manager, France Telecom-Orange, in a statement issued by the MFA Forum. "MFA's work on mobile backhaul intends to leverage the proven benefits of MPLS technology in evolving a converged backhaul with cost optimization."

MMBI enables a smooth migration from one generation to the next, using pseudowire technology and supports dynamic sharing of RAN capacity, the statement said. Using the same MPLS-based backhaul networks, operators also can offer additional services such as Layer 3 VPNs.

Nikhil Shah, of Juniper Networks and a board member and vice president of international development for the MFA, said the agency is developing a reference architecture for cases in which MPLS can be used to support mobile backhaul needs. "In recent years, the Forum has published implementation agreements to facilitate the migration of ATM and TDM to MPLS-based infrastructure and that expertise will be leveraged in the Mobile Backhaul Initiative,” he said in the statement.