Joint Routing and Resource Allocation for Millimeter Wave Picocellular Backhaul

Abstract

Picocellular architectures are essential for providing the spatial reuse required to satisfy the everincreasing demand for mobile data. A key deployment challenge is to provide backhaul connections with sufficiently high data rate. Providing wired support (e.g., using optical fiber) to pico base stations deployed opportunistically on lampposts and rooftops is impractical, hence wireless backhaul becomes an attractive approach. A multihop mesh network comprised of directional millimeter wave links is considered here for this purpose. The backhaul design problem is formulated as one of joint routing and resource allocation, accounting for mutual interference across simultaneously active links. A computationally tractable formulation is developed by leveraging the localized nature of interference and the provable existence of a sparse optimal allocation. Numerical results are provided for millimeter (mm) wave mesh networks, which are well suited for scaling backhaul data rates due to abundance of spectrum, and the ability to form highly directional, electronically steerable beams.

Interference Management and Capacity Analysis for mm-Wave Picocells in Urban Canyons

“…1: Picocellular network deployed along an urban canyon one [9][10][11][12][13]: mobile users must be accurately tracked in order to form highly directive beams, and the relative ease of blockage of mm waves implies that an inventory of multiple feasible paths to a given user must be maintained in order to facilitate switching in the event of blockage. Providing an adequate backhaul for mm-wave picocells is another challenge, with mm-wave backhaul (possibly using a band different from that used for the access link) as one viable option [14][15][16][17]. In short, there are many challenges that must be addressed in order to realize the system concept driving the work reported here.…”