Mobile Backhaul

1.2 What is ‘Mobile Backhaul’

Figure 1.1 already provides the first answer: mobile backhaul unites a mobile network with transport/packet networks. Some elements and functions of the mobile network are within the scope, and the rest of functionality and characteristics are coming from the transport and packet networking side. Ultimately it is the mobile network that serves the end-users, however, the deployment and design of the mobile backhaul impacts not only the mobile element interfaces, but also contributes to mobile network's overall operation and performance.

Mobile networks themselves are already well established in very many parts of the world, and mobile networks continue to expand, covering wider and wider areas of the globe. They also develop at a rapid rate and offer more and more services, including many kinds of wideband services, and enable higher and higher bit rates between the terminals and the network. This means that especially the data traffic is growing very fast in many mobile networks. Therefore well-working inter-element connections are necessary for the mobile networks to operate properly, and the role of supporting transport and packet networks is increasing. These transport and packet networks serving mobile networks are called ‘mobile backhaul networks’, or often just ‘mobile backhaul’ (MBH), as they connect a large number of base station sites to a limited number of centralized sites (see Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2 Mobile backhaul (MBH) network connects ...