Free - space Optical Wireless for Backhaul in 5G Networks

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Mobile wireless networks permit near instant connectivity between individuals and allow businesses serve customers world wide. Canada, given its immense geography, is more dependent than most countries on the connectivity that wireless mobile networks provide. This proposal develops enabling technologies to permit the expansion of next generation (5G) cellular networks. These 5G networks will service the expected explosion of users by deploying a dense network of basestations. A key difficulty in the realization of these networks is the need to provide high data rate, low latency backhaul connections from each basestation to a central node. Although fiber solutions are preferred, they are expensive to install and not always available. In addition, focused radio-frequency (RF) microwave links for backhaul are often not ideal considering their need for licensing, the high data rates required and the cost per unit bandwidth. With the support of TELUS, this proposal develops an alternative backhaul technology based on free-space optical (FSO) communications. FSO communication refers to the transmission of information via modulated visible or infrared (IR) optical band emissions through the atmosphere. FSO is particularly promising for last-mile broadband connectivity as it can virtually extend the high speed fiber backbone network to the subscriber's premises at comparatively low cost since spectrum licensing is not required. The overall goal of the proposed research project is to develop tools to allow service providers, like TELUS, to effectively deploy FSO technologies to provide backhaul in 5G networks. This requires fundamental research on (a) the modeling and algorithms of hybrid RF-FSO links, (b) optimized network planning for FSO backhaul and relaying, (c) basestation coordination using FSO techniques, and (d) prototype implementations.