LTE Backhaul

4 Dimensioning Aspects and Analytical Models of LTE MBH Networks

Csaba Vulkán¹ and Juha T.T. Salmelin²

¹ Nokia Networks, Budapest, Hungary

² Nokia Networks, Espoo, Finland

4.1 Introduction

The role of the mobile backhaul (MBH) is to provide transport connectivity between the eNBs and the core network elements. During the dimensioning process, the optimal MBH architecture, physical and logical topology and transport services are created with the scope to support the services provided by the LTE network and to enable the seamless operation and management of the LTE system. The large variety of services and applications an LTE user should be able to reach—ranging from VoLTE to over-the-top (OTT) applications such as YouTube©, Flickr© and Facebook©—mandates a careful and complex planning process where network costs, optimal configuration and customer experience must be considered at the same time. Seamless network operation means not only the U-plane but also the C-plane can operate efficiently and securely, LTE services can be established with low latency and end-user applications are supported according to their own quality requirements, whereas the operator can continuously monitor and manage the network. Accordingly, the underlying transport network is a multi-purpose system that should be dimensioned to serve all the U-plane, C-plane, M-plane and synchronization plane (S-plane) traffic at the same time (Figure 4.1). While the U-plane traffic represents the dominant share ...