Small Cell Backhaul Requirements

Enterprise wi fi and small cells typically use 1gbps ethernet backhaul over standard cat5e cable but that s insufficient for the latest 802 11ac wi fi and lte u small cells.

Small cell backhaul requirements.

Aquantia has designed chips that achieve up to 5gbps over existing cable using a new technology called nbase t which should be more than enough to meet demand. From the beginning optical fiber has been a favored method of backhaul for small cell deployment at least in the u s. To analyse the requirements and provide suitable recommendations the small cell forum scf set up a special interest group sig on small cell backhaul. Small cells are unobtrusive and can be installed in just a couple of hours.

This results in increased capacity requirements onto the backhaul links currently feeding the macro cell especially as more and more small cells are deployed. Backhaul fiber optic cable or microwave for transmission to the core network and a permitted space for installation. Due to the dense small cell deployment and heavy traffic cells in 5g 5g backhaul network will need to support hundreds of gigabits of traffic from the core network and today s cellular backhaul. Piggybacked on macro cells.

The minimum target today in order to backhaul lte small cells is around 50 mbps and 150 mbps or higher capacities are required to support peak data rates 10. Small cells can be homed back to existing macro cells with combined small and macro cell traffic backhauled to the mtso. Due to the dense small cell deployment and heavy traffic cells in 5g 5g backhaul network will need to support hundreds of gigabits of traffic from the core network and today s cellular backhaul networks are infeasible to meet these requirements in terms of capacity availability latency energy and cost efficiency. Fiber has longer range than the previously used ethernet as well as greater capacity larger bandwidth and lower latency.

These numbers are expected to grow as multiple radio access technologies and additional spectrum become available for small cells. Plus the existing infrastructure is strong. Small cell backhaul requirements differ from those of macrocells in terms of capacity requirements use cases and economics. Security small form factor and low installation cost.