Toward Mobile and Converged Backhaul: The Promise of Wireless Access and Backhaul

Wireless Access and Backhaul (WAB) is emerging as a key enabler for flexible and cost-efficient 5G deployments, offering a modular architecture that decouples access and backhaul while supporting multi-technology and mobile backhaul links. This article introduces the WAB framework standardized in 3GPP Release 19, outlining its architecture and operational principles. A practical implementation built with commercial hardware and open-source software demonstrates the feasibility and efficiency of WAB systems. We further explore four representative application scenarios - ranging from on-demand coverage to mobile Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) connectivity - and discuss the technical challenges that must be addressed for large-scale adoption. These insights highlight WAB as a promising foundation for 5G-Advanced and a stepping stone toward future 6G networks.