BackNets 2016 - Workshop on Next Generation Backhaul/Fronthaul Networks (BackNets'2016)

There are considerable market interests on the development of smart backhaul/fronthaul solutions for next
generation of communications network that are an evolution of the existing backhaul technologies, i.e., SDH,
ATM, MPLS and Ethernet. One of the main considerations the operators are faced with today is how to migrate
existing backhaul/fronthaul networks toward a smart backhauling/fronthauling infrastructure suitable for the next
generations of cellular technology. The 2016 edition of Workshop on Next Generation Backhaul/Fonthaul
Networks BackNets 2016 will be organized in conjunction with IEEE ICC’2016, May 23-27, 2016, Kuala
Lumpur. Proceedings of BackNets 2016 will be a collection of outstanding technical research/position and
industrial papers covering novel backhaul/fronthaul solutions and recent research results with wide range of
technologies within the 5G frameworks. The workshop will examine the technical challenges, review the
economic feasibility, and discuss possible paths to regulatory solutions for future generation of
backhaul/fronthaul communications and networking. The workshop will provide an opportunity for exchanging
ideas and creating new space for innovative game-changing backhaul/fronthaul solutions to the challenging
problems of designing smart backhauling/fronthauling for the excessive heterogeneous-types of traffic in
heterogeneous 5G networks.
Topics of Interest
The topics of interest for the workshop include, but are not limited to:
? Requirements and limitations for backhaul/fronthaul communications and networking (data rate,
scalability, latency, cost effectiveness, etc.)
? Backhaul/fronthaul design and their capabilities for multi-tier ultra-dense heterogeneous small cell
networks
? Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) based backhaul/fronthaul design for ultra-dense and sparsely
populated areas
? Hybrid backhaul/fronthaul solutions (wired/wireless, point-to-point (PtP)/Point-to-Multi-Point (PtMP),
line-of-sight (LOS)/Non-line-of-sight (NLOS), etc.)
? Usability of higher frequency bands for backhaul/fronthaul design (Free Space Optical (FSO)/mm-wave
based communications)
? Interference management in wireless backhaul/fronthaul networks, e.g., Coordinated Multipoint
(CoMP), Cloud Radio Access Networks (CRAN), and Split frame architectures.
? PtP wireless backhaul/fronthaul interfaces for high data rate demanding links (LOS communications,
multi-hop communications, e.g., FSO/Microwave based communications)
? Migration to IP based backhaul/fronthaul design for 5G networks
? Massive MIMO based backhaul/fronthaul for ultra-dense small cell deployment
? Software-defined radio/Cognitive radio based backhaul/fronthaul designs
? Orchestration of in-band and out-of-band frequency usage for backhaul/fronthaul
? Joint design and optimization of radio access and backhaul/fronthaul networks
? Synchronization approaches and latency issues to combat delays introduced in backhaul/fronthaul
operations
? Scheduling techniques and radio resource management (RRM) in backhaul/fronthaul networks
? Green backhaul/fronthaul solutions and energy consumption models for new backhaul/fronthaul
technologies
? Backhaul/fronthaul relaxation in heterogeneous networks including traffic offloading and data caching
? Comparative case studies with legacy backhaul networks
? Backhaul/fronthaul convergence and application driven business models for commercial/regulatory
deployments
Technical Program Committee:
? Syed Ali Raza Zaidi, University of Leeds, UK
? Marco Maso, Huawei France Research Center, France
? Amitava Ghosh, NSN, USA
? Ali Sadri, Intel Corp., USA
? Oliver Blume, Alcatel-Lucent, Germany
? Azeddine Gati, Orange, France
? David Lopez-Perez, Alcatel-lucent, Ireland
? Mehdi Bennis, University of Oulu, Finland
? Tao Cai, Huawei Technologies, Sweden AB, Sweden
? Bessie Malila, University of Cape Town, South Africa
? Hayssam Dahrouj, KAUST, Saudi Arabia
? Björn Skubic, Ericsson, Sweden
? Anvar Tukmanov, BT, UK
? Josep Mangues-Bafalluy, Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya, Spain
? José Núñez-Martínez, Centre Tecnologic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya, Spain
? Meera Datta, NIIT University, India
? Maurizio Casoni, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy
? Muhammad Asim, Universita' degli Studi di Parma, Italy
? Yinggang Li, Ericsson Research, Radio Access Technology, Ericsson AB, Sweden
? Jian Zhao, Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore
? Bhavani Shankar, Mysore R, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
? Jian (Andrew) Zhang, CSIRO, Australia
? Mounir Frikha, Supcom, Tunisia
? Italo Atzeni, Huawei, France
? Jesus Arnau Yanez, Huawei France Research Center, France
? Marco Ruffini, University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland
? Hina Tabassum, University of Manitoba, Canada,
? Mihailovic Andrej, Kings College London, UK
? Samir Perlaza, INRIA, France
? Sami Mekki, Huawei France Research Center, France
? Gan Zheng, University of Essex, UK
? Johannes Lessmann, NEC Labs, Germany