HOWRAN: An Hybrid Optical Wireless Radio Access Network for WiMAX Antennas Backhauling

In comparison to existing 3G or 3G+ wireless systems, fourth generation (4G), long-term evolution (LTE) or mobile Wimax are characterized by higher bit rates, highly fluctuant traffic matrices and higher antenna’s density. Current backhauling techniques federating radio antennas are not suited to these new characteristics. Several investigations are carried out for the design of new generation radio access networks (NG-RAN) in charge of concentrating radio cellular traffic from the base stations to the core network. In this paper, we propose an original approach based on an Hybrid Optical Wireless Radio Access Network (HOWRAN) exploiting the benefits of radio-over-fiber technologies and of recent advances in the field of optical devices and systems. As an illustration, we apply the HOWRAN concept to the backhauling of fixed or mobile WiMAX base stations. The two main innovative aspects of HOWRAN are depicted: its hardware architecture and its control plane.