At MWC 2014 (Mobile World Congress), Barcelona, Airspan Networks announced a Software Define Networking (SDN) based Small Cell Backhaul solution for aggregating multiple backhaul technologies in a single network.
Airspan’s iBridge Small Cell Backhaul solution combines operation in licensed and unlicensed spectrum using LTE Relay or PTMP NLOS technology in licensed bands and 802.11ac operating in the 5 GHz band.
Airspan’s SDN architecture for Small Cell Backhaul networks combines available backhaul routes and schedules LTE small cell traffic over individual routes according to their QoS and bandwidth needs.
For example, signaling and high priority user plane traffic is routed over licensed spectrum, whilst lower priority traffic is offloaded onto less robust 5 GHz unlicensed or low cost wireline connections such as Bonded DSL, VDSL, DOCSIS, or PON.
Paul Senior, CTO, Airspan Networks, said: “By aggregating available backhaul connections according to QoS rules, a small cell backhaul network can robustly deliver capacities in excess of a Gigabit per second.”
At Mobile World Congress, the demonstration shows dynamic augmentation of robust licensed band links with large 80 MHz IEEE 802.11ac pipes.
