  With high capacity air interfaces and large numbers of small cells, backhaul
-- the wired connectivity to base stations -- is increasingly becoming the cost
driver in cellular wireless networks. One reason for the high cost of backhaul
is that capacity is often purchased on leased lines with guaranteed rates
provisioned to peak loads. In this paper, we present an alternate
\emph{opportunistic backhaul} model where third parties provide base stations
and backhaul connections and lease out excess capacity in their networks to the
cellular provider when available, presumably at significantly lower costs than
guaranteed connections. We describe a scalable architecture for such
deployments using open access femtocells, which are small plug-and-play base
stations that operate in the carrier's spectrum but can connect directly into
the third party provider's wired network. Within the proposed architecture, we
present a general user association optimization algorithm that enables the
cellular provider to dynamically determine which mobiles should be assigned to
the third-party femtocells based on the traffic demands, interference and
channel conditions and third-party access pricing. Although the optimization is
non-convex, the algorithm uses a computationally efficient method for finding
approximate solutions via dual decomposition. Simulations of the deployment
model based on actual base station locations are presented that show that large
capacity gains are achievable if adoption of third-party, open access
femtocells can reach even a small fraction of the current market penetration of
WiFi access points.
