Radio access and transport network interaction – a concept for improving QoE and resource utilization
Traffic congestion may occur in the transport network at certain times and locations, and for given types of traffic. Both the radio access and the transport domain might attempt to mitigate such congestion, but the lack of information sharing between them makes this task complex, and in some cases impossible.
A number of technologies, such as deep packet inspection and application of performance measurements, already exist to help the radio and transport domains to gain a better understanding of the traffic situation in the other domain. But, as this Ericsson Review article details, these technologies are insufficient and may not work for certain use cases.
Our concept for radio access and transport network interaction is a two-step process that first attempts to proactively avoid congestion and then address any congestion issues that cannot be avoided. For example, if information about transport path congestion can be included in the handover decision, moving users to a cell with congested transport can be avoided. But to do this, the RAN needs to be transport aware and the transport network needs to be RAN aware.
This Ericsson Review article outlines the background, motivation, example use cases and building blocks of RAN transport interaction (RTI) – a new concept for sharing information between radio and transport domains to optimize QoE.