Mobile Integrated Access and Backhaul: Potential Power Saving Issues and Solutions

A key benefit of integrated access and backhaul (IAB) is enabling flexible and very dense deployment of NR cells without densifying the transport network proportionately. In mobile IAB (mIAB) networks, due to the large-scale deployment of mIAB nodes, lightly loaded nodes or even nodes without service objects may cause unnecessary energy consumption and interference with the surrounding IAB nodes. However, the existing UE transition methods and activation trigger methods from the connected state to the inactive state are not suitable for mIAB nodes. In addition, due to the mobility of mIAB nodes, a longer activation time of nodes lead to a more serious degradation of the user quality of service. Therefore, in this paper, we study the deactivation and activation mechanism of mIAB nodes, and the conditions that trigger the activation of mIAB nodes. At last, the efficient state transition of mIAB nodes is considered.