5G transport network blueprint and dimensioning for a dense urban scenario

Abstract

In this paper, we provide a quantitative evaluation of the deployment aspects and dimensioning of the 5G transport architecture in a representative European city. In particular, we select an example dense urban city scenario based on the city of Barcelona, and illustrate how the transport network architecture defined by the 5G-XHaul project can be deployed in that environment. Building on the case of Barcelona, we discuss physical deployment aspects, such as the locations to deploy small cells, how many compute facilities should be scattered throughout the city, or where the control plane functions should be deployed. In addition, we provide a quantitative evaluation of the 5G-XHaul deployment in Barcelona, including the bandwidth required at the different segments of the architecture, i.e. the wireless segment, the WDM-PON access network, and the TSON metro network. We also evaluate control plane aspects, such as the number of 5G-XHaul SDN controllers required for a city like Barcelona.