Microwave Hop-Length and Availability Targets for the 5G Mobile Backhaul

Deployment of new radio access technology offers the possibility to optimize the existing mobile backhaul. Both the new technology (5G, LTE-A) and the legacy systems (LTE, HSPA, 3G, 2G) utilize the transmission and transport capacities of the backhaul extensively. The recent introduction of 5G requires again increased capacities. Consequently, more and more cell-site locations will receive fiber-optical backbone. Depending on the topology, the existing microwave and millimeter-wave links will “turn” towards aggregation points having fiber access. The increased density of cellsites reduces the hop-lengths, meanwhile adaptive modulation also provides the possibility of capacity increase. This paper reviews the availability and fade margin targets of the new links, that shall be carefully kept by proper planning and monitoring.