5G-XHaul: a converged optical and wireless solution for 5G transport networks

• Published in: Transactions on emerging telecommunications technologies 2016-09, Vol.27 (9), p.1187-1195
• Main Authors: Gutiérrez, Jesús, Maletic, Nebojsa, Camps-Mur, Daniel, García, Eduard, Berberana, Ignacio, Anastasopoulos, Markos, Tzanakaki, Anna, Kalokidou, Vaia, Flegkas, Paris, Syrivelis, Dimitris, Korakis, Thanasis, Legg, Peter, Markovic, Dusan, Lyberopoulos, George, Bartelt, Jens, Chaudhary, Jay Kant, Grieger, Michael, Vucic, Nikola, Zou, Jim, Grass, Eckhard
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Comunicacions mòbils, Sistemes de; Enginyeria de la telecomunicació; Mobile communication systems; Àrees temàtiques de la UPC
• ISSN: 2161-3915; 2161-3915
• DOI: 10.1002/ett.3063

The common European Information and Communications Technology sector vision for 5G is that it should leverage on the strengths of both optical and wireless technologies. In the 5G context, a wide spectra of radio access technologies—such as millimetre wave transmission, massive multiple‐input multiple‐output and new waveforms—demand for high capacity, highly flexible and convergent transport networks. As the requirements imposed on future 5G networks rise, so do the challenges in the transport network. Hence, 5G‐XHaul proposes a converged optical and wireless transport network solution with a unified control plane based on software defined networking. This solution is able to support the flexible backhaul and fronthaul—X‐Haul—options required to tackle the future challenges imposed by 5G radio access technologies. 5G‐XHaul studies the trade‐offs involving fully or partially converged backhaul and fronthaul functions, with the aim of maximising the associated sharing benefits, improving efficiency in resource utilisation and providing measurable benefits in terms of overall cost, scalability and sustainability. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 5G‐XHaul proposes a converged optical/wireless 5G network infrastructure interconnecting computational resources with fixed and mobile users to support both operational network–Cloud RAN–and end‐user computational services, adopting the concept of cloud computing. A layered architecture is considered to effectively and efficiently provision both end‐user and operational services over the proposed infrastructure. 5G‐XHaul will adopt a holistic view considering jointly mobile fronthaul and backhaul functions to ensure appropriate allocation of the required resources across all domains.