IAB Backhaul Link Failure Recovery via Hierarchical Node Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Integrated Access Backhaul (IAB) networks face challenges in efficiently recovering from backhaul link failures, leading to prolonged service interruptions and increased signaling loads due to the time-consuming process of identifying and attaching to alternate parent nodes, especially in scenarios where alternative nodes are unavailable or sub-optimal paths are selected.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves a hierarchical approach where affected nodes communicate backhaul failure information to downstream nodes, allowing them to pause or throttle data transmission and strategically select nodes to re-establish connectivity, thereby minimizing service interruptions and signaling overload. This includes a mechanism for nodes to find alternative parent nodes in a hierarchical manner, ensuring that only necessary nodes initiate connection re-establishment, reducing the need for subsequent optimizations in the network tree structure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If all affected nodes attempt to find alternative parent nodes simultaneously after backhaul link failure, then connectivity recovery is initiated across the network, but signaling load increases significantly and service interruption time extends
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network into hierarchical levels (donor node, IAB nodes, child nodes) and implements differentiated recovery procedures for each segment. Only specific nodes at certain hierarchical levels are instructed to find alternative parents, while other nodes pause or throttle traffic, thereby reducing overall signaling load and coordination complexity during recovery
Solution Approach 2:
The donor node proactively identifies and instructs specific IAB nodes about backhaul link failures before those nodes would independently detect and respond to the failure. This preliminary notification enables coordinated recovery actions, preventing simultaneous recovery attempts by all affected nodes and reducing signaling overhead
2Reliability
If all affected nodes attempt to find alternative parent nodes simultaneously, then connectivity recovery is initiated, but signaling load increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The network is segmented hierarchically with the donor node at the top, IAB nodes in the middle, and child nodes at the bottom. The donor node segments the recovery responsibility by selectively instructing only certain IAB nodes to find alternative parents, while other nodes simply pause or throttle traffic, thereby reducing overall signaling load
Solution Approach 2:
The complex recovery decision-making process is extracted from individual nodes and centralized at the donor node. The donor node extracts and processes failure information, then selectively distributes recovery instructions to minimize signaling load across the network
3Reliability
If child nodes pause or throttle data transmission upon receiving failure indication, then service continuity is maintained during recovery, but data transmission rate decreases
Solution Approach 1:
Child nodes dynamically adjust their data transmission behavior based on received failure indications. Instead of permanently stopping transmission, nodes can throttle traffic or pause temporarily, allowing adaptive maintenance of service continuity while preserving the ability to resume normal transmission rates once recovery is complete
Data Source
AI summary
A method and network node for backhaul link failure recovery are disclosed. A network node is configured to attempt to find an alternative backhaul link to replace the failed backhaul link. If the attempt to find an alternative backhaul link fails, then the network node communicates a first indication of an existence of the failure to the first child network node one level below the network node affected by the failure and causes the first child network node to find another network node to serve as a new parent network node. If the first child network node finds another node to serve as the new parent network node then the network node is configured to serve as a second child network node of the first child network node so that the first child network node serves as a parent of the network node.