NEW YORK, Nov 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Heavy Reading (http://www.heavyreading.com/), the prestigious market research division of CMP's Light Reading (http://www.lightreading.com/), today launched a brand-new service that tracks one of the telecom industry's most dynamic and important emerging product sectors: the Ethernet backhaul market.

Heavy Reading's new Ethernet Backhaul Quarterly Market Tracker delivers a global perspective on the rate at which cellular networks in different regions of the world will undertake the transition from TDM-based backhaul to IP/Ethernet-based backhaul. The tracker considers the different drivers for the technology and provides forecasts for the adoption of new Ethernet capabilities in RAN nodes, in the last mile, and deeper in the aggregation and metro transport parts of the network.

The transition to Ethernet backhaul will take place in the context of the availability of high-performance, low-cost, widely available carrier Ethernet services from wireline service providers on the one hand, and the willingness of cellular network planners to outsource their Ethernet backhaul service requirements or build these new networks themselves on the other.

The new tracker provides granular market data, including forecasts for key product types such as Ethernet microwave, Ethernet in the First Mile, and Ethernet-enabled base stations. It also forecasts carrier requirements for features such as ATM, IP/MPLS, pseudowires, and native Ethernet switching through 2011. The quarterly tracking service also highlights key vendor wins in the Ethernet backhaul space and assesses the implications for vendor positioning, providing granular, global insight into this emerging market sector unavailable from other sources.

Unique in both its focus on the transition to Ethernet and the scope it takes in depicting that transition across L1, L2, and L3 across the cell site, aggregation, or hub and metro networks, the first edition of the Ethernet Backhaul Quarterly Market Tracker includes forecasts for the penetration of ATM, IP/MPLS, as well as TDM- and ATM-variant pseudowires across the network.

Heavy Reading expects some 4 percent of the world's cell sites to be supported by Ethernet backhaul by the end of 2009, rising to 15 percent by the end of 2011 - though a portion of these will still have TDM backhaul in service even by that time. Leading cellular markets in Europe and Asia will be early adopters of Ethernet backhaul; although Sprint Nextel wants to bring Ethernet backhaul to its EV-DO cell sites on the back of its WiMax rollout, North America as a whole will be a late adopter, remaining almost entirely dependent on the traditional T1/E1 environment through 2008.

By 2011, Heavy Reading predicts fiber will be the dominant L1 technology supporting Ethernet service to the cell site. Bonded copper solutions, including Ethernet in the First Mile, are seeing early adoption in Europe and Asia, but not yet in North America. Reflecting strong feedback from operators about the performance of Ethernet microwave, the first edition of the Ethernet Backhaul Quarterly Market Tracker is bullish about the prospects for Ethernet microwave in cellular networks, albeit from 2009 onwards.

The first edition of this tracker singles out the following vendors as being at the forefront of the transition to Ethernet backhaul in cellular networks: Alcatel Lucent, Ceragon, Huawei, RAD Data, and Tellabs.

Heavy Reading's Ethernet Backhaul Quarterly Market Tracker is distributed in PowerPoint format. Reports may be purchased individually or as part of an annual subscription.

For more information, contact: Dave Williams Sales Director, Heavy Reading 858-485-8870 dave.williams@heavyreading.com Press/analyst contact: Dennis Mendyk Managing Director, Heavy Reading 201-587-2154 mendyk@heavyreading.com About Heavy Reading

Heavy Reading is an independent market research organization offering quantitative analysis of telecom technology to service providers, vendors, and investors. Its mandate is to provide the comprehensive competitive analysis needed today for the deployment of profitable networks based on next- generation hardware and software.

About CMP

CMP (http://www.cmp.com/) is a media and marketing solutions company serving the technology industry. With the leading online, event, and print brands in all technology market categories, and with services and tools that reach beyond traditional advertising, CMP shapes and influences the technology industry worldwide. CMP publishes highly respected media brands such as TechWeb, InformationWeek, ChannelWeb, CRN, EE Times, and TechOnline; produces major industry events such as Interop, Web 2.0 Expo, XChange, Game Developer Conference, and the Embedded Systems Conferences; and provides business information and marketing services such as the International Customer Management Institute, Semiconductor Insights, and Second Life consulting for technology marketers. CMP is a subsidiary of United Business Media (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/), a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion. For more CMP news, go to cmp.com/news.

CONTACT: Dave Williams of Sales Director, Heavy Reading,
+1-858-485-8870, dave.williams@heavyreading.com, or Press-analyst contact:
Dennis Mendyk, Managing Director, Heavy Reading, 1-201-587-2154,
mendyk@heavyreading.com

Web site: http://www.heavyreading.com/
http://www.lightreading.com/
http://www.cmp.com/