An Analog-Only Small Cell Unit with Millimeter-Wave Wireless Backhaul for Mobile Communication

This paper analyses the achievable signal quality of a novel system architecture for small cell units with integrated millimetre-wave wireless backhaul over realistic link lengths. The small cell unit is mainly based on a simple frequency conversion from backhaul to access frequencies. Therefore, the data signal on the backhaul link is solely a frequency shifted version of the 3GPP compliant signal on the access link. The sufficient linearity and phase noise performance at 60 GHz was proven in an outdoor long-distance trial by measurements of an LTE signal easily meeting the 3GPP requirements for the access link. Moreover, a successful outdoor test of our full end-to-end LTE mobile communication system with a commercial user device demonstrated the required high data rates.