LTE Backhaul

5 Planning and Optimizing Mobile Backhaul for LTE

Raija Lilius¹, Jari Salo², José Manuel Tapia Pérez¹ and Esa Markus Metsälä¹

¹ Nokia Networks, Espoo, Finland

² Nokia Networks, Doha, Qatar

5.1 Introduction

Planning the mobile backhaul network for LTE is rarely done without considering the available backhaul infrastructure or other radio access technologies. As the proportion of the LTE capable end user equipment is increasing and LTE usage increases, there will likely come a time when the backhaul network needs to be modernized to support the increasing traffic. This is referred to as “strategic planning” in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, and as a result of this strategic planning the L1/L2 technologies are selected, and the topology of the network is planned taking into account the resiliency methods available for use. Strategic planning defines the cost of the backhaul network as it defines the transport media, bandwidth requirements and resiliency to be used that have a major impact on the total cost of implementing the backhaul network, as discussed in the examples in Chapter 3. Also the schedule outlining the phases in which the network is to be upgraded or replaced to meet the requirements of the increased traffic is a result of strategic planning. These results define the boundary conditions for high-level planning.

In addition to LTE, many backhaul networks support other radio access technologies such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and Wideband ...