Mobile Backhaul

10.7 From the Selected MBH Solution to Detailed Network Plans

When a MBH solution (type) has been selected, basic deployment strategy defined and equipment families defined, a detailed planning of the MBH network can start.

The selected solution needs first to be broken into a number of implementation steps each of which is built ‘off-line’ in parallel to the working network and then taken into use. Depending on the selected basic approach (see Section 3), there may be a large number of smaller steps or just a few major ones; the first is likely in replacement scenarios while in the overlay scenarios quite big network areas can be built before taking them in to service.

In both cases each step needs careful detailed planning during which the exact equipment types and units (cards) and exact physical connectivity (including cabling) are defined and, above all, the exact logical network structure and related equipment configurations (including naming and addresses) are defined. In particular, when a scenario with high number of implementation steps is planned in detail level, careful checking of the proper operation of the network after each step is important; for example, there shall be no undefined end-points nor missing or double domains or addresses.

A detailed plan for packet based MBH networks needs to include at least the following elements:

• network (physical) connections plan within the transport network and interfaces towards the mobile network equipment (base stations ...