On the design of 5G transport networks

Future 5G systems will pave the way to a completely new societal paradigm where access to information will be available anywhere, anytime, and to anyone or anything. Most of the ongoing research and debate around 5G systems are focusing on the radio network segment (e.g., how to offer high peak-rates per subscriber, and how to handle a very large number of simultaneously connected devices without compromising on coverage, outage probability, and latency). On the other hand, understanding the impact that 5G systems will have on the transport network (i.e., the segment in charge of the backhaul of radio base stations and/or the fronthaul of remote radio units) is also very important. This paper provides an analysis of the key architectural challenges for the design of a flexible 5G transport infrastructure able to adapt in a cost-efficient way to the plethora of requirements coming from the large number of envisioned future 5G services.