Mobile Backhaul

10.6 Selecting MBH Access Solution for a Particular Case

The question of selecting a packet based MBH solution for a particular practical case is discussed here based on a few examples. The process begins from the ‘hard’ starting points of a particular case, then adds the ‘soft’ ones (including the MBH targets and goals), continues with surveying possible technical options and studying these alternatives against the optimization criteria (with proper weighting for the actual case), and finally finds the most suitable solution(s) for a more detailed analysis, detailed planning and/or for formulating an RFQ.

10.6.1 MBH Solution for LTE in a Dense Urban Area (in a Developed Environment)

Building of a high-capacity mobile network layer based on LTE technology will be a common way to increase the capacity of an existing 3G mobile network in the central areas of big developed city areas (‘dense urban environment’).

The new LTE base stations are in the first place located on the existing sites, but often this will not provide high enough capacity over the whole area, and new fill-in sites are needed; how many, depends on the density of the existing mobile network and on the decided capacity targets. If we assume for example that the number of fill-in sites will be roughly equal to the existing sites, then one ‘hard’ starting point for the new packet based MBH network is that about half of the last-mile links exists (but the link capacities are based on the 3G network needs) and the other ...