On the Coverage Extension of 5G Millimeter Wave Deployments Using Integrated Access and Backhaul

Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) has been considered by the 3GPP as a New Radio (NR) Release 16 study item for 5G networks. The purpose of IAB is to realize low cost 5G deployments in millimeter wave bands using wireless relaying. The main benefit is to reduce the cost of backhaul by using wireless NR links between the infrastructure nodes. In this paper, we study the throughput performance of wireless relaying in 5G millimeter wave bands in the 3GPP Urban Micro scenario. We characterize the upper bound on the IAB performance using centralized scheduling and flexible time division duplex (TDD) switching, and also consider appropriate backhaul and uplink access power levels. Simulation results are presented for a scenario with multiple base stations deployed, each with multiple transmit-receive antenna array panels, and with a large number of users deployed in the system.