When Resiliency Matters: An Overview of 5G and Beyond Wireless Backhaul Network Design

The massive integration of connected devices, together with the exponential growth of Internet traffic, have forced mobile network operators to continuously upgrade their infrastructures. The densification of the network, by introducing many more small cells, was promoted as a solution to meet the ongoing challenges. However, network densification implies the need for an appropriate backhaul network capable of handling the anticipated traffic. This article presents a brief overview of the wireless backhaul requirements and technologies that reinforce resiliency for next-generation networks, followed by a review of the current works on the planning of resilient wireless backhaul networks. Finally, it introduces a case study for the design of a hierarchical wireless backhaul topology that considers several basic requirements, including link reliability, network resiliency, and cost and management efficiency.