Traditional 3G cellular networks use wired T1 links to form the backhaul networks to connect base stations to the controller. These backhaul networks will become the bottleneck with the proliferation of high-speed wireless data access technologies. Furthermore, the complexity involved in deploying and maintaining the wired infrastructure limits the reach of the 3G technology. IEEE 802.16 (WIMAX) is a promising new wireless technology that has several desirable characteristics that make it a viable alternative to form backhaul networks.This paper shows how to form a backhaul network using IEEE 802.16 nodes at minimum cost. We formulate the problem of designing a IEEE 802.16-based backhaul network as an optimization problem to minimize the cost of deployment while serving the required demands. We consider the costs of establishing base stations and creating links simultaneously. Subsequently, we describe the integer programming formulation for the optimization problem. We then design an efficient heuristic that utilizes specific characteristics of the problem to achieve near-optimal results.
['Sudeept Bhatnagar', 'Samrat Ganguly', 'Rauf Izmailov']
Design of IEEE 802.16-based multi-hop wireless backhaul networks