Introduction : The Communication Haul Challenge

Nowadays, the mobile Internet is a pervasive phenomenon that is changing social trends and playing a pivotal role in creating a digital economy. The future enhanced communication haul for 5G is expected to be deployed around 2020 in order to support the exponential growth in wireless data that is forecast over the next decade. This chapter provides an overview of current approaches to backhauling legacy communication systems and explains the rationale for deploying future smart and efficient backhauling/fronthauling infrastructure from architectural, technical and business points of view using real‐life applications and use cases. Emerging channel transmission approaches and the possibility of using higher frequency bands, such as massive MIMO and millimetre‐wave (mmWave), respectively, are of paramount importance for future wireless systems and for the communication haul. C‐RAN promises considerable benefits compared to decentralized network architectures.Cell selection for joint optimization considering backhauling technology is needed for future wireless systems.