Backhauling: Technical And Commercial Definitions

In both the technical and commercial definitions, backhaul generally refers to the side of the network that communicates with the global Internet, paid for at wholesale commercial access rates to or at an Ethernet Exchange, a physical network infrastructure through which Ethernet service provider, carriers and Internet service providers exchange Ethernet traffic between their networks; or other core network access location.

In the broadband Internet industry, the “middle mile” is the segment if a telecommunications network linking a network operator’s core network to the local network plant, typically situated in the incumbent telco’s central office (British English: telephone exchange), that provides access to the local loop, or in the case of cable television operators, the local cable modem termination system. Sometimes, these networks exist between the customer’s local area network (“LAN”), a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building using network media, and those exchanges. This can be a local Wide Area Network (“WAN”), a network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network rgar links across metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries, or  wireless local area network (“WLAN”) connection, which lunks two or more devices using some wireless distribution method (typically spread-spectrum or OFDM radio), and usually proividing a connection through an access point to the wider Internet. For instance, Network New Hampshire Now and Maine Fiber Company run tariffed--a “telecommunications tariff” is an open contact between a telecommunications service provider and the public, filed with a regulating body such as Public Utilities Commission--public dark fibre (“unlit fibre”) networks, an unused optical fibre, available for use in fibre-optic communication, as a backhaul alternative to encourage local and national carriers to reach areas with the following, otherwise it would not be serving: broadband, a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device (and the broader the band, the greater the capacity for traffic); and cell phone (also known as “cellular phone,” “mobile phone,” and a “hand phone”), a device that can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. These serve retail networks which in turn connect buildings and bill customer directly.

Cell phones communicating with a single cell tower constitute a local subnetwork. It is the connection between the cell tower, a site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed, usually on a radio mast, tower or other high place, to create a cell (or adjacent cells) in a cellular network, and the rest of the world beginning with a backhaul link to the core of the Internet service provider’s network (“ISP”), an organization that provides access to the Internet; via a point of presence (“POP”), an artificial demarcation point or interface point between communications entities.
The term backhaul is often generically used to describe the entire wired part of the network, though this is confused by the use of microwave bands, or radio waves with wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as if millimetre, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz (0.3 GHz) and 300 GHz; and mesh network and edge network topologies, a type of networking where each node must not only capture and disseminate its own data, but also serve as a “relay” for other nodes, that is, it must collaborate to propagate the data in  the network--uses a high capacity wireless channel to get packets to the microwave or fibrr links.

See: NewSat Backhauling