Mobile Backhaul Optical Access Networks for Coordinated Multipoint Transmission/Reception (CoMP) Techniques in Future Cellular Systems

This paper describes mobile backhaul optical access network designs for future cellular systems, in particular, for those systems that exploit coordinated multipoints (CoMP) transmission/reception techniques. Wavelength-division-multiplexing passive optical networks (WDM-PON) are primarily considered and two proposals to enhance mobile backhaul capability of WDM-PONs for CoMP are presented. One is physical X2 links that support dedicated low latency and high capacity data exchange between base stations (BSs). The other is multicasting in WDM-PONs. It effectively reduces data/control transmission time from central node to multiple BSs joining CoMP. Evaluation results verify that the proposed X2 links and the multicasting enable more BSs to join CoMP by enhancing the mobile backhaul capability, which results in improved service quality for users. key words: mobile backhaul access networks, wavelength-division multiplexing passive optical networks (WDM-PON), coordinated multi-points (CoMP), X2 interface, multicasting