Futuristic backhaul networks: Transport protocols perspective

The mobile Internet data traffic is growing rapidly in non-uniform peak traffic patterns. Emerging radio access technologies are forcing the backhaul network architectures to undergo a major transition in the direction of heterogeneous architectures. This paper provides a brief overview on the applicable protocols with reference to a futuristic backhaul network model serving a variety of radio access technologies. The data traffic paths in the backhaul network are mapped to the candidate protocols mentioned in the paper. In the attempt of developing flexible network architectures for transporting humongous amounts of data generated from next generation radio access technologies, some challenges in protocol layer are presented.