LTE Backhaul

2LTE Backhaul

Gerald Bedürftig¹, Jouko Kapanen², Esa Markus Metsälä² and Juha T.T. Salmelin

¹ Nokia Networks, Berlin, Germany

² Nokia Networks, Espoo, Finland

2.1 Introduction

This chapter gives an overview of different aspects of LTE backhaul. An introduction about the different elements of a backhaul network, the different end-to-end (e2e) services and the requirements of the LTE Mobile Access network are given. A short explanation of the different L1 possibilities for the defined network areas is also included. In addition, a prospective of future requirements and an overview of the relevant standards are provided. A general understanding of packet-based backhaul networks is a prerequisite for an understanding of this chapter. More detailed information can be found in Metsälä and Salmelin (2012).

With LTE, the backhaul network will be further extended toward the core network. For second-generation (2G) networks the backhaul consisted of an access part and in most cases one level of aggregation until the base station controller (BSC) was reached. Third generation (3G) further concentrated the radio network controller (RNC) site locations and so additional aggregation layers needed to be considered. With the elimination of the RNC in the LTE architecture, a further concentration of the mobility management entity (MME), serving gateway (S-GW) and packet data network gateway (P-GW)—which in most cases were combined as a serving and packet data network gateway (SP-GW)—was the ...