Evaluation of hybrid terrestrial-satellite suburban wireless mesh backhauls for LTE networks

Abstract

The development of 5G networks supposes a big challenge for mobile operators in order to satisfy the ambitious objective of delivering broadband services ubiquitously. Based on this, the increasing capabilities of satellite systems have created the consensus that such systems can satisfy the required necessities for several scenarios, such as for rural or low-density populated areas. Used in combination with a terrestrial wireless backhaul, satellite backhauls are envisaged as a solution to improve the network efficiency in terms of delivered traffic to access nodes while increasing its resiliency for the mentioned scenarios. This paper presents i) our ns-3 framework for modeling hybrid terrestrial-satellite mesh backhaul networks that carry LTE traffic and ii) a comparison of our different backpressure-based approaches against generic shortest-path routing in a low-density suburban scenario for LTE networks. Simulation results reveal the advantages of backpressure-based approaches to make an efficient use of the network resources while integrating seamlessly both terrestrial and satellite backhaul resources.

Convergence of Satellite and Terrestrial Networks: A Comprehensive Survey

“…The design of backhaul networks should adhere to three key principles [151]: (i) together with conventional terrestrial backhaul networks, the satellite network transmit information as a critical part in the tight integration backhaul system, (ii) the topology of the terrestrial backhaul systems are adaptive to communication events and can be modified according to requirements, and (iii) satellite-terrestrial networks should be entitled the cognitive spectrum ability. In particular, it is worth to mention that ultra-dense LEO satellite networks with high frequency band and appropriate service coverage have been introduced into the architecture to achieve optimal backhaul capacity [152].…”

“…In [151], performance evaluation of TCP and UDP connections is presented. The flexibility of different backhaul routing method is based on the service merits.…”

Exploiting cognitive wireless nodes for priority‐based data communication in terrestrial sensor networks

“…Shaat and Perez-Neira studied the problem of the cross-layer design of the link scheduling and flow control in a hybrid terrestrial-satellite wireless backhauling network [4]. Baranda and others presented the ns-3 framework for modeling hybrid terrestrial-satellite mesh backhaul networks that carry LTE traffic, and a comparison of the different backpressure-based approaches against generic shortest-path routing, in a low-density suburban scenario for LTE networks [5]. Lin and others proposed a beamforming scheme to enhance wireless information and power transfer in terrestrial cellular networks coexisting with satellite networks [6], while Ahmad and others presented an advanced first-order energy consumption model for terrestrial wireless sensor networks [7].…”

Towards Backpressure Routing in Wireless Mesh Backhauls for Dense LTE Deployments

“…In [10], the variants were compared over a regular mesh and an irregular ring-tree topology, and using many different TCP protocols. The work in [11] shows that this variant (per-flow) of BP-MR is also suitable for hybrid satellite-terrestrial LTE backhaul networks when using both UDP and TCP transmission protocols. The main difference between the variants is that per-packet computes the best possible next-hop for each packet forwarded, while per-flow calculates it just for the first packet of a flow, and then saving the pair next hop/flow in a forwarding table.…”