The backhaul portion of a hierarchical telecommunications network includes intermediate links between a core network, or backbone network and the small subnetworks at the “edge” of the network. Traditionally the backhaul network is implemented using a high speed wired link (e.g., fiber optic cable) or line-of-sight (LOS) microwave links when it is too expensive to use high speed wired communications (e.g., remote base stations). Because of the prohibitive cost of connecting high speed wired links to each remote base station in a network it is desirable to use wireless transmission for backhaul links.