Evaluating the Energy Balance of Solar-Powered Coordinated Wireless Backhaul Networks

Coordinated point-to-point radio networks constitute a reliable and cost-efficient technology for wireless backhauling that connect access networks with backbone infrastructures. In mountainous regions like the Alps, such networks are deployed to provide Internet connectivity to remote villages. In Sub-Saharan countries, such as Tanzania, they serve as an increasingly popular solution to connect sparsely populated areas. In these countries, climatic and weather conditions provide continuous solar irradiation, which facilitates power supply with photovoltaic (PV) modules and buffer batteries. During daytime, PV modules provide the power for network operation and charging batteries. At night, batteries supply power to a scaled-down network configuration. Moreover, intricacies such as remote or hardly accessible location of radio nodes or unreliable power grid are effectively dealt with. However, without stringent energy budget control policies, these kinds of networks are prone to outages and failures. As a further option, among others, the deployment of excess battery capacity and larger PV panels can handle periods of lull or overcast (dark) skies. Accounting for the solar irradiation patterns of typical deployment areas of these networks, this work investigates if solar-powered point-to-point radio networks are a feasible and reliable backhauling solution.