In-band, point to multi-point, mm-Wave backhaul for 5G networks

Innovations for cost-effective and scalable wireless backhaul solutions in practical mobile network deployment scenarios are essential for realizing the 5G vision of providing “Gbit/s anywhere”. Not only is the backhaul essential to support network densification based on small cell deployments, but also for supporting very low latency inter-BS communication to combat inter-cell interference. Multiplexing backhaul and access on the same frequency band (in-band wireless backhaul) has obvious cost benefits from hardware and frequency reuse perspective, but poses significant technology challenges. We consider an inband solution to meet the backhaul and inter-BS coordination challenges that accompany network densification. In this paper, we present an analysis to persuade the readers of the feasibility of in-band wireless backhaul, discuss realistic deployment and system assumptions and present novel scheduling schemes for inter-BS communications. We show that an in-band wireless backhaul for data backhauling and inter BS-coordination is feasible without significantly hurting the cell access capacities.