Testbed for Local-Area Private Network with Satellite-Terrestrial Backhauling

This paper presents a system that provides broadband and machine-type communications connectivity in local-area radio access network (RAN) with different backhaul options. Two core network (CN) placements, local and remote, with terrestrial and non-terrestrial backhauling are considered. The performance of the system is evaluated in terms of TCP throughput, UDP datagram loss probability, and latency in a live network. The network consists of a local LTE / LTE-M based RAN and wired or satellite backhaul to the CN. The results showed that for the considered system, the throughput of TCP traffic in LTE downlink suffers both from remote CN placement and satellite backhauling. In LTE uplink and with LTE-M connectivity, all tested configurations achieved the same maximum throughput. For UDP traffic, the datagram loss probability for LTE and LTE-M varied only slightly between different CN and backhaul options.