Constrained Deployment Optimization in Integrated Access and Backhaul Networks

TL;DR

This paper explores deployment optimization strategies for integrated access and backhaul networks in 5G/6G, focusing on constrained node placement to enhance coverage despite geographical and interference limitations.

Contribution

It introduces mmWave blocking-aware constrained deployment optimization methods to improve IAB network coverage under placement restrictions.

Findings

Deployment optimization significantly improves coverage.

Constrained placement approaches outperform unconstrained methods.

Network planning mitigates limitations caused by geographical and interference constraints.

Abstract

Integrated access and backhaul (IAB) is one of the promising techniques for 5G networks and beyond (6G), in which the same node/hardware is used to provide both backhaul and cellular services in a multi-hop fashion. Due to the sensitivity of the backhaul links with high rate/reliability demands, proper network planning is needed to make the IAB network performing appropriately and as good as possible. In this paper, we study the effect of deployment optimization on the coverage of IAB networks. We concentrate on the cases where, due to either geographical or interference management limitations, unconstrained IAB node placement is not feasible in some areas. To that end, we propose various millimeter wave (mmWave) blocking-aware constrained deployment optimization approaches. Our results indicate that, even with limitations on deployment optimization, network planning boosts the coverage of IAB networks considerably.