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ERICSSON
TECHNOLOGY

A) Separate access and backhaul Use case examples

f1 f2
Urban
FWT
Backhaul
Core
core instance

f1 f2
Backhaul FWT
Core
core instance
Suburban

B) Integrated access and backhaul

f1 f1 f1 f2
IAB-MT IAB-MT
Core
Core

Virtual IAB-MT Virtual IAB-MT Indoor

f1 f2
f1 f1
Core

INTRODUCING
INTEGRATED ACCESS
AND BACKHAUL
✱ INTEGRATED ACCESS AND BACKHAUL

Integrated access
and backhaul
A NEW TYPE OF WIRELESS BACKHAUL IN 5G

5G New Radio introduces a new type of wireless backhaul known as

integrated access and backhaul that is of particular interest for dense
deployment of street-level radio nodes.

HENRIK RONKAINEN,
The combination of millimeter wave (mmWave) two decades and will remain a highly attractive
JONAS EDSTAM, spectrum – which is becoming available complement to fiber for 5G transport [2].
ANDERS ERICSSON, globally for 5G – with other spectrum assets Network densification using street-site
CHRISTER ÖSTBERG below 6GHz results in high speeds and deployments comes with new challenges, however.
capacities. The mmWave radio resources can The allowed space and weight for equipment is
only provide limited coverage, though, which limited. The installation, integration and operation
makes it reasonable to expect a fairly low level must be simplified with a high degree of automation
of utilization. As a result, there is an opportunity to achieve cost-efficient deployment of RAN
to use an innovative type of wireless backhaul and transport. This calls for a new type of
in 5G – integrated access and backhaul (IAB) wireless backhaul that is fully integrated with
– to densify networks with multi-band radio 5G New Radio (NR) access. This is where IAB
sites at street level. enters the frame.
More than 10GHz of total bandwidth in the
■ Transport networks play a vital role in RANs mmWave frequency range of 24.25GHz to 71GHz
by connecting all the pieces. The use of dark fiber was globally identified for 5G at the ITU World
for 5G transport is of growing importance [1], Radio Conference 2019. Already today, 5GHz
and wireless backhaul is an essential complement of mmWave bandwidth is available in the US.
for sites where fiber is either not available or too The best overall performance at the lowest total
costly. In fact, microwave backhaul has been cost of ownership is achieved by using mmWave
the dominant global backhaul media for over in combination with spectrum assets below 6GHz [1].

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 INTEGRATED ACCESS AND BACKHAUL ✱

These assets will be deployed on macro sites A solution more like IAB was studied for
(rooftops, towers) and street sites (poles, walls, strands) LTE in 3GPP release 10 in 2011, also known as
in urban areas with high demands on capacity and LTE relaying [4], but it never gained any commercial
speed, as well as in suburban areas with fiber-like interest. However, with the wide mmWave
fixed wireless access (FWA) services [3]. IAB could bandwidths now becoming available, there is
provide fast deployment of mmWave backhaul for considerable interest in an IAB solution for 5G NR.
new multiband street sites, with an easy migration The work on IAB has been going on in the 3GPP
to fiber-based backhaul if, and when, needed. since 2017, and it is currently being standardized for
release 16, targeting completion during 2020 [5, 6].
Using radio-access technology IAB can provide flexible and scalable multi-hop
to provide backhaul backhauling, using the same or different frequency
Access spectrum has historically been too valuable bands for access and backhaul, as shown in
and limited to use for backhauling. Its rare use section B of Figure 1.
today is for LTE solutions that provide a single The backhaul is efficiently forwarded across
backhaul hop using a separate frequency band the wirelessly interconnected radio nodes,
from access, as shown in section A of Figure 1. with the backhaul links terminated by an
This approach uses a fixed wireless terminal (FWT) IAB mobile termination (IAB-MT) function.
to provide connectivity to a separate backhaul The IAB-MT could either use a separate antenna
core instance. The instance could either be in the or share the access antenna of the base station
core for radio access or distributed closer to the (virtual IAB-MT). The latter provides the
radio nodes to support lower latency inter-site ultimate level of integration, as well as utilizing
connectivity. It is also possible to use 5G NR to the high-performance base station antennas
provide such separate access and backhaul solutions. for backhaul over longer distances.

A) Separate access and backhaul Use case examples

f1 f2
Urban
FWT
Backhaul
Core
core instance

f1 f2
Backhaul FWT
Core
core instance
Suburban

B) Integrated access and backhaul

f1 f1 f1 f2
IAB-MT IAB-MT
Core
Core

Virtual IAB-MT Virtual IAB-MT Indoor

f1 f2
f1 f1
Core

Figure 1 Solutions using radio-access technology to provide backhaul

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✱ INTEGRATED ACCESS AND BACKHAUL

IAB donor IAB node 1 IAB node 2

5GC CU IAB in the 5G architecture

F1 -U/C
Donor DU Uu
IAB-MT DU Uu
IAB-MT DU

F1 F1
O&M BAP BAP BAP BAP O&M
Other Other Forwarding with backhaul
RLC RLC RLC RLC
adaptation protocol (BAP)
MAC MAC MAC MAC
gNB
Parent Child Parent Child
Downstream
NR backhaul links and roles
Upstream

Phase 1 DL blocked

Phase 2 DL blocked DL blocked

DL TDD phases for in-band IAB

Phase 3 DL blocked with half-duplex constraint

Phase 4

UL Phase 5

Figure 2 The 3GPP IAB concept

The IAB concept is defined by the 3GPP to be unit (CU) and one or more distributed units (DU).
flexible and scalable to support other use cases The CU hosts the higher layer protocols to the UE
beyond the initial market interest, such as low-power and terminates the control plane and user plane
indoor radio nodes. There is also research on future interfaces to the 5GC. The CU controls the
advanced enhancement and optimizations for more DU nodes over the F1 interface(s), where the
visionary IAB use. DU node hosts the lower layers for the NR Uu
interface to the UE.
The 3GPP concept of integrated access As illustrated in Figure 2, the CU/DU split
and backhaul architecture is used for IAB and enables efficient
IAB is defined to reuse existing 5G NR functions multi-hop support. The architecture eliminates
and interfaces, as well as to minimize impact the backhaul core instance at every IAB node shown
on the core network. The architecture is scalable, in Figure 1A and related overhead due to tunnels
so that the number of backhaul hops is only inside tunnels, which would become severe for
limited by network performance. From a transport large multi-hop chains.
perspective, IAB provides generic IP connectivity As the time-critical functionality is located in each
to enable an easy upgrade to fiber transport DU, the F1 interface is well suited for a non-ideal
when needed. backhaul such as IAB. The IAB donor is a logical
In the 5G network, the gNB base station provides node that provides the NR-based wireless backhaul
NR protocol terminations to the user equipment and consists of a CU and wire-connected donor
(UE) and is connected to the 5G Core (5GC) DU(s). The IAB nodes, which may serve multiple
network. As defined in 3GPP TS 38.401 [7], the gNB radio sectors, are wireless backhauled to the IAB
is a logical node, which may be split into one central donor and consist of a DU and an IAB-MT.

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 INTEGRATED ACCESS AND BACKHAUL ✱

All IAB-nodes and donor DU(s) that use the same is therefore required between transmission
CU are part of one gNB, in accordance with the CU/ and reception phases within each IAB node.
DU split architecture. Hence, the wireless backhaul IAB is expected to be of most benefit in
is isolated inside the gNB, and any internal topology, mmWave spectrum, where TDD [8] is used
routing or backhaul changes can be made without and operators typically have large bandwidth.
impacting the 5GC or neighboring gNBs. A similar A TDD network is typically configured with a
situation is valid for the UEs, for which the IAB node (often regulated) pattern for the time domain
appears as a normal base station, supporting both allocation of downlink (DL) and uplink (UL)
NR standalone and non-standalone mode. resources, and an additional level of pattern
As shown in Figure 2, the NR backhaul link is must be used to support combined access and
between a “parent” on the network side and a “child” backhaul traffic. This is illustrated in the example
at the other end. The DU at the parent schedules the in Figure 2, with five different repeated IAB time
backhaul downstream and upstream traffic to/from phases for node-local TDD states, where phases
the IAB-MT at the child, supporting a limited subset 1-4 are mapped to the DL and phase 5 to the UL.
of the NR UE functionality. This includes lower
protocol layer functionality to the parent as well as IAB IS EXPECTED TO
Radio Resource Control and non-access stratum
functionality to the IAB donor CU and 5GC. BE OF MOST BENEFIT
The backhaul adaptation protocol (BAP) [11] IN MMWAVE SPECTRUM
enables efficient IP data forwarding across the IAB
interconnected radio nodes, where the BAP data is The mix and duration of different phases can be
carried by backhaul Radio Link Control (RLC) flexible depending on the scenario, access/backhaul
channels on each NR backhaul link. Multiple channels link performance, load and so on. Due to the half-
can be configured to enable traffic prioritization and duplex constraint, there will be time periods in which
QoS enforcement and, based on these properties, the nodes are blocked from transmission in a normal
the BAP entity in each node maps protocol data DL slot, effectively reducing the peak rate for an IAB
units to the appropriate backhaul RLC channel. node compared with a similar node with wired (non-
Hop-by-hop forwarding, from the IAB donor limited) backhaul. This occurs whenever there is a
to the destination IAB node, is based on the BAP transmission over the NR backhaul link, as the
routing identity set by the IAB donor. Any IP traffic receiving end of the link will not operate according to
can be forwarded over the BAP, such as F1 and the overall TDD pattern. In the example in Figure 2,
operation and maintenance (O&M) of the IAB the backhaul transmission occurs in phases 1-3, and
nodes, as well as connectivity of any other equipment the normal DL operation is blocked for the receiving
at the IAB-node site, as shown in Figure 2. nodes (in all sectors) during these phases.
The parent node schedules all traffic over the
Physical layer aspects backhaul link (phases 1-3) in the same way as
The IAB feature is intended to support out-of- for UE scheduling, where frequency division
band and in-band backhauling, where the latter multiplexing or space division multiplexing can
means usage of the same carrier frequencies for be used to separate simultaneous transmissions.
both the NR backhaul links and the access links.
In-band operation comes with a half-duplex Deployment constraints for integrated access
constraint, implying that the IAB-MT part of an and backhaul
IAB node cannot receive while its collocated DU From a 3GPP architecture perspective, the IAB
is transmitting and vice versa to avoid intra-site feature is flexible, supporting multi-hop and a variety
interference. A strict time-domain separation of topologies. However, there are other aspects that

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✱ INTEGRATED ACCESS AND BACKHAUL

restrict the size of the IAB network topology, Wide-area and local-area IAB-MT are intended
where in-band operation (sharing spectrum for for different deployment scenarios and use differing
both backhaul and access) is an essential reason TDD patterns. In Figure 2, all backhaul link traffic
for these limitations. Larger IAB topologies might is scheduled during DL timeslots but an alternative
also require complex control functions. But since TDD scheme may be applied where the UL timeslots
IAB is a complement to fiber, the size of most are used for upstream backhaul. The latter scheme
IAB networks is expected to be small. is restricted in terms of output power, making it
In a multi-hop network, the first backhaul hop more suitable for local-area deployments.
must carry the backhaul bandwidth not only for the The IAB backhaul links give rise to a semi-
first IAB node, but also for all other IAB nodes synchronous TDD operation, for which the
further down in the hop chain. Deploying multi-hop regulatory framework for local coordination
networks will therefore eventually lead to backhaul- between operators is not yet in place in all countries
limited nodes due to congestion in the first hop. [10]. As illustrated by the TDD phases in Figure 2,
Increasing the number of hops will also increase during certain time slots the IAB node will
the end-to-end latency and raise the complexity operate in an inverted mode with respect to the
for scheduling and routing to satisfy QoS. general TDD pattern. This means that a node
The 3GPP gNB synchronization requirements may be in receiving mode during a DL slot for
apply also for IAB nodes that may be fulfilled with a backhaul link reception and thus suffer from
node-local synchronization solution based on the neighbor node interference, both within the
Global Navigation Satellite System. In some situations, same channel as well as between channels
this is neither wanted nor feasible. Over-the-air in the same frequency band.
synchronization is therefore an alternative option, Even though the backhaul link is more robust
using periodic parent-transmitted reference symbols against interference due to good link budget,
as the synchronization source for the receiving child measures such as isolation between nodes
node. This scheme implies that the clock accuracy (separation distance, for example) or coordinated
at the donor DU must be better than the 3GPP TDD patterns may still be required to avoid
requirement, as the synchronization budget is shared/ excessive interference.
aggregated for all nodes using this donor DU. There are
therefore several practical reasons to limit the number
of hops and not deploy oversized IAB topologies. THE SIZE OF MOST IAB
Regardless of topology, there are also general NETWORKS IS EXPECTED
radio aspects to consider. The 3GPP specifies radio
interface requirements for the IAB-MT [8], with two TO BE SMALL
categories to distinguish different use cases and
characteristics. One category is for wide-area usage Integrated access and backhaul
with planned site deployment, such as backhaul of from a backhaul perspective
street sites; the other is for local-area usage with Traditional backhaul is a service provided by the
site deployments that may not be preplanned. transport network domain to the radio-access nodes.
The wide-area category enables an integrated For IAB, a segment of the backhaul is embedded in
solution for the access and backhaul links, where the the RAN domain, sharing common radio resources.
IAB node can benefit from using the full base station The backhaul transport cannot be dimensioned
capabilities – such as advanced antenna systems on an individual node basis, as the IAB donor
(AAS) [9] and high output power – to provide good terminates the “common backhaul” for all underlying
backhaul link performance and relatively large IAB nodes extending the radio access to UEs
distance between parent and child nodes. through a network of backhaul and access links.

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 INTEGRATED ACCESS AND BACKHAUL ✱

m
- ~450
~100m Achievable downstream backhaul rate
400
100% 6%
14%
21%
15%

Percentage of NR backhaul links 14%

Urban scenarios
~1-3 IAB nodes per macro sector, multi hop 44%

55%

m <0.5Gbps
00
18 7% 0.5-1Gbps
65%
14% 1-1.5Gbps

7% 1.5-2Gbps

24% 2-2.5Gbps
14%
>2.5Gbps
0%
~800m Urban Suburban Suburban
Both suburban scenarios 15% foliage 23% foliage
One IAB node per macro sector, single hop

Figure 3 Simulated I AB performance for three scenarios

Instead, the backhaul dimensioning for IAB The role of integrated access and backhaul
systems needs to be an integrated part of RAN in network evolution
dimensioning, considering the shared radio Densification of current networks will mainly take
resources for backhaul and access. From a transport place in urban and dense suburban environments.
network perspective, the IAB nodes appear as As one part of assessing the role of IAB, we have
extensions of the IAB donor. The same IP performed radio network simulations of such
assignment methods can be used for IAB nodes scenarios, as illustrated in Figure 3.
as for fiber-connected radio nodes, which facilitate When providing broadband to a home, FWA is a
an easy upgrade to fiber transport when needed. good alternative to fiber in many cases, as it lowers
IAB can also provide IP connectivity for other the barrier to entry and supports faster deployment
equipment at the IAB node site, as shown in Figure 2. [3]. In cases where the traffic demands require
The transport performance requirements densification – in dense suburban areas in the US,
to the IAB donor are affected by the connected for example – the use of wireless backhaul can
IAB nodes. The busy hour data traffic is funneled further add to these advantages.
through the IAB donor and increases with each We studied FWA using IAB in simulations of two
connected IAB node. The latency and US suburban neighborhoods in the San Francisco
synchronization requirements for the transport Bay Area, with the level of foliage as the main difference:
are also affected, as each IAB backhaul hop adds 15 and 23 percent respectively. As a reference, our
latency and timing error. These aspects will also estimates indicate that about half of the dense suburban
limit the size of the IAB topology. areas in the US have a foliage level lower than 15 percent.

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✱ INTEGRATED ACCESS AND BACKHAUL

Both areas had a macro grid, with an inter-site access and backhaul radio resources. Fiber backhaul
distance of 1,800m and three sectors per site. In is therefore recommended for such sites. For the
order to serve households with an average data remaining 40 percent of the sites, IAB could be a
consumption of 1,000GB per month, a densification viable option, despite the amount of foliage.
was made where each macro sector provided In a simulation of urban London, a densification
backhaul to a street site with a single hop of about with street sites is required to extend coverage and
800m, as shown in Figure 3. improve mobile broadband capacity both indoors
All sites were deployed with 40MHz on mid band and outdoors. All sites use mid band and mmWave
for access and 800MHz on mmWave for access and for access, and the mmWave is also used for
backhaul. The locations of the new street sites were backhauling between street sites and macro sites.
chosen to secure good backhaul links from the The backhaul topology was a tree structure with one
macro sites as well as good access coverage to the to four hops, where most sites only had a single hop.
homes. An ideal position can be a utility pole in line- The simulations show that the need for an LOS
of-sight (LOS) of the macro site with a surrounding backhaul link is less critical in urban environments
area with few or no obstacles. Moreover, the risk of than in suburban ones, thanks to strong reflections
future infrastructure changes blocking the backhaul in the city environment, making it relatively easy to
link should be considered. find locations with good signal strength.
In the area with less foliage, the street sites off- Furthermore, the backhaul links are shorter in an
load the macro sites by serving around 40 percent of urban environment, and the impact of foliage is
the households. About 80 percent of the backhaul typically less significant due to fewer trees. Figure 3
links have a downstream rate above 2Gbps, as shows the achievable downstream backhaul link
shown in Figure 3. Over 200 households per square rates for the urban case, which are all above 1Gbps.
kilometer could be served without IAB causing any Eighty percent are above 2Gbps. The densified
traffic limitation, even during peak hours. network provides excellent coverage and capacity for
In the area with more foliage, the propagation both outdoor and indoor users, even though IAB
conditions are worse both for access and backhaul. consumes part of the spectrum.
Therefore, additional street sites may be needed to For both suburban and urban scenarios, these
meet the required capacity, which will affect the simulations show that IAB is an attractive
business case. It was more challenging to find street complement to fiber, with the ability to provide
site locations with good access as well as backhaul. backhaul in the early years until traffic growth
Around 60 percent of the backhaul links have a requires all radio resources to be used for access.
downstream rate below 1Gbps, which means the Depending on the subscriber distribution, IAB may
backhaul will consume a large part of the common not even need to be replaced by fiber at some sites.

Terms and abbreviations

5GC – 5G Core | AAS – Advanced Antenna System | BAP – Backhaul Adaptation Protocol |
CU – Central Unit | DL – Downlink | DU – Distributed Unit | F1 – Interface CU–DU | FWA – Fixed Wireless
Access | FWT – Fixed Wireless Terminal | gNB – gNodeB | IAB – Integrated Access and Backhaul |
LOS – Line-of-Sight | MAC – Medium Access Control | mmWave – Millimeter Wave | MT – Mobile Termination |
NR – New Radio | O&M – Operation and Maintenance | PoC – Proof of Concept | RLC – Radio Link Control |
TDD – Time Division Duplex | UE – User Equipment | UL – Uplink | Uu – radio interface between RAN and UE

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 INTEGRATED ACCESS AND BACKHAUL ✱

PoC-UE

PoC-IAB node #1

PoC-IAB node #2

PoC-IAB donor node

Figure 4 Deployment of the IAB testbed in Stockholm

As the backhaul link uses parts of the available Conclusion

spectrum resources, the typical rates for users in cells The massive amount of mmWave spectrum
served by donors or IAB nodes will be lower than if that is becoming available globally will spark
all nodes are fiber connected. Still, with the small a wide variety of innovative 5G use cases.
scale network topologies used in the simulations, Integrated access and backhaul (IAB)
we achieve peak user throughputs far above 1Gbps. is one such innovation that could enhance
5G New Radio to support not only access
Proof of concept but also wireless backhaul.
In order to properly assess IAB-specific Our radio network simulations show that
performance aspects, Ericsson has developed IAB could serve as a versatile backhaul option
an IAB proof of concept (PoC) testbed in an for street sites in urban and suburban areas, using
authentic environment. At the Ericsson site in small-scale star and tree backhaul topologies.
Stockholm we have set up a two-hop IAB It could also be useful for temporary deployments
deployment using two-sector IAB nodes with for special events or emergency situations.
either 28GHz or 39GHz AAS radios with Point-to-point microwave backhaul will remain
100MHz bandwidth, as shown in Figure 4. an essential complement to fiber for 5G transport
The IAB nodes are in the wide-area category with for traditional macro sites, while IAB is a promising
NR backhaul links using DL slots for all transmitted advanced concept that may become as important
data. Initial test results are aligned with expectations for wireless backhaul of street sites.
and show backhaul bitrates near the predicted
and end-to-end peak rates independent of hop level.

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✱ INTEGRATED ACCESS AND BACKHAUL

References
1. Ericsson Technology Review, 5G New Radio RAN and transport choices that minimize TCO, November 7,
2019, Eriksson, A.C; Forsman, M; Ronkainen, H; Willars, P; Östberg, C, available at: https://www.ericsson.
com/en/reports-and-papers/ericsson-technology-review/articles/5g-nr-ran-and-transport-choices-that-
minimize-tco
2. Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2018 report, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/en/reports-and-papers/
microwave-outlook/reports/2018
3. Ericsson Mobility Report, Making fixed wireless access a reality, November 2018, available at:
https://www.ericsson.com/en/mobility-report/articles/fixed-wireless-access
4. 3GPP TR 36.806, Relay architectures for E-UTRA (LTE-Advanced), available at:
https://www.3gpp.org/dynareport/36806.htm
5. IEEE, Ericsson Research, Integrated Access Backhauled Networks, Teyeb, O; Muhammad, A; Mildh, G;
Dahlman, E; Barac, F; Makki, B, available at: https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1906/1906.09298.pdf
6. Ericsson Technology Review, 5G evolution: 3GPP releases 16 & 17 overview, March 9, 2020, Peisa, J;
Persson, P; Parkvall, S; Dahlman, E; Grøvlen, A; Hoymann, C; Gerstenberger, D, available at: https://www.
ericsson.com/en/reports-and-papers/ericsson-technology-review/articles/5g-nr-evolution
7. 3GPP TS 38.401, NG-RAN; Architecture description, available at:
https://www.3gpp.org/dynareport/38401.htm
8. 3GPP TS 38.174, Integrated access and backhaul radio transmission and reception, available at:
https://www.3gpp.org/dynareport/38174.htm
9. Ericsson white paper, Advanced antenna systems for 5G networks, von Butovitsch, P; Astely, D; Friberg,
C; Furuskär, A; Göransson, B; Hogan, B; Karlsson, J; Larsson, E, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/en/
reports-and-papers/white-papers/advanced-antenna-systems-for-5g-networks
10. ECC Report 307, Toolbox for the most appropriate synchronisation regulatory framework including
coexistence of MFCN in 24.25-27.5 GHz in unsynchronised and semi-synchronised mode, March 6, 2020,
available at: https://www.ecodocdb.dk/download/58715ebf-a1e3/ECC%20Report%20307.pdf
11. 3GPP TS 38.340, NR; Backhaul Adaptation Protocol, available at:
https://www.3gpp.org/dynareport/38340.htm

Further reading
❭ Ericsson, Building 5G networks, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/en/5g/5g-networks
❭ Ericsson, Microwave backhaul, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/en/networks/trending/hot-topics/
microwave-backhaul
❭ Ericsson, Fixed wireless access, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/en/networks/offerings/fixed-wireless-
access
❭ Ericsson, 5G access, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/en/networks/offerings/5g

10 ERICSSON TECH NOLOGY REVIEW ✱ JUNE 23, 2020

 INTEGRATED ACCESS AND BACKHAUL ✱

25 years of experience in this and in system management,

the authors

area. Throughout his career, as well as heading up the

he has served in various Algorithm and Simulations
leading roles, working on a department at Ericsson
wide range of topics. Mobile Platforms/ST-
Ericsson. Ericsson holds
a Licentiate Eng. in automatic
control and an M.Sc.
in applied physics and
Henrik Ronkainen electrical engineering from
◆ joined Ericsson in 1989 Linköping University, Sweden.
to work with software
development in telecom
control systems and later
became a software and
system architect for the 2G His current focus is on 5G NR
and 3G RAN systems. With and the strategic evolution of
the introduction of High mobile networks and fixed
Speed Downlink Packet wireless applications. Edstam
Access, he worked as a holds a Ph.D. in physics from
system architect for 3G and Chalmers University of
4G UE modems. Ronkainen Technology in Gothenburg, Christer Östberg
currently serves as a system Sweden. ◆ is an expert in the physical
designer at Business Area layer of radio access at
Networks, where his work Business Area Networks,
focuses on analysis and where he is currently
solutions related to the focusing on analysis and
architecture, deployment solutions related to the
and functionality required by architecture, deployment
The authors would
5G RAN. He holds a B.Sc. in and functionality required by
like to thank
electrical engineering from 5G RAN. After first joining
Anders Furuskär,
Lund University in Sweden. Ericsson in 1997 to work
Jialu Lun,
with algorithm development,
Birgitta Olin,
Per Skillermark, Jonas Edstam Anders Ericsson he later became a system
Johan Söder, ◆ joined Ericsson in 1995 ◆ joined Ericsson in 1999 architect responsible for the
Allan Tart and and currently works with and currently works as a modem parts of 3G and 4G
Sten Wallin for portfolio management at system designer at Business UE platforms. Östberg holds
their contributions Business Unit Networks. Area Networks. During his an M.Sc. in electrical
to this article. He is also an expert on wire- time at Ericsson, he has engineering from Lund
less backhaul, with more than worked at Ericsson Research University.

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