Reliable and cost-efficient protection scheme for 5G fronthaul/backhaul network.

Area of Science:

• Telecommunications Engineering
• Network Reliability
• Optical Networking

Background:

• 5G deployment necessitates high network reliability for new services like telemedicine and augmented reality.
• Ensuring this reliability demands significant investment, often limiting Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) from deploying backup resources.
• Cost-effectiveness is a key factor for MNOs when implementing network protection strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a reliable and low-cost protection scheme for the 5G transport network (fronthaul/backhaul).
• To utilize an Ultra-Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing Passive Optical Network (UDWDM PON) for this protection scheme.
• To evaluate the economic feasibility and reliability improvements of the proposed solution.

Main Methods:

• Evaluating the Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) of UDWDM PON with and without a protection scheme in a dense urban setting.
• Measuring the cost-reliability trade-off (figure of merit) for the system.
• Conducting simulation experiments to demonstrate the proposed scheme's efficacy.

Main Results:

• The proposed UDWDM PON protection scheme significantly enhances system reliability.
• The protection scheme achieves a reliability level of up to four nines.
• The additional CAPEX investment required for the protection scheme is minimal.

Conclusions:

• The developed UDWDM PON protection scheme offers a reliable and cost-effective solution for 5G fronthaul/backhaul.
• This approach addresses the challenge of balancing high reliability requirements with MNO investment constraints.
• The study validates the proposed scheme's effectiveness through simulations and cost analysis.