A traffic-driven analysis for small cells backhaul planning

• Published in: 2016 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference pp. 1 - 7
• Main Authors: Er-Rahmadi, Btissam, Ksentini, Adlen, Meddour, Djamal-Eddine
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.04.2016
• Subjects: Communication system security; Logic gates; Mobile communication; Planning; Throughput; Topology; Wireless communication
• ISSN: 1558-2612
• DOI: 10.1109/WCNC.2016.7565174

High smartphone penetration and Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) growth imply a quick and good broadband services delivery. In this context, Mobile Networks Operators (MNOs) have to satisfy current subscribers and gain new ones. Small Cells (SCs) are a promising alternative to MNOs to reach emerging markets and meet the rising mobile broadband demand. However, most of those competitive markets have to be served with wireless transport infrastructures for economic reasons; yet wireless links have limited data rates. SCs backhaul should be carefully planned. For this purpose, SCs backhaul dimensioning must take into account required end users traffic flows. As those throughputs vary according to different users traffic profiles, what are the necessary backhaul links capacities to satisfy them and don't exceed MNO budget. In this paper, we analyze UEs activity effect on issued traffic flows on a SC logical interfaces (S1 and X2) by using a Markov chain. We make difference between user and control plane throughputs. Numerical results showed how UEs activity increases generated traffic on S1 interface, but its impact is barely noticed on X2 interface traffic. It is due to the fact that data exchanges are primarily done on S1 interface, whereas signalization flows are minority parts in both S1 and X2 interfaces.