Emergency backhaul links for wireless telecommunications networks

A first radio base station comprising:

• an air interface component;
• a backhaul interface;
• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
• detecting a backhaul link failure condition of a backhaul link of the first radio base station established via the backhaul interface,
• in response to detecting the backhaul link failure condition of the backhaul link, establishing an emergency backhaul link to a second radio base station over an air interface via the air interface component, the second radio base station being selected from a plurality of radio base stations based on the second radio base station being associated with a priority higher than a priority associated with at last a portion of remaining radio base stations of the plurality of radio base stations,
• transmitting outbound backhaul traffic to the second radio base station, and
• receiving inbound backhaul traffic from the second radio base station via the emergency backhaul link established over the air interface via the air interface component.

A second radio base station comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
• receiving, from a first radio base station, a message comprising a request to establish an emergency backhaul link, wherein the second radio base station is selected from a plurality of radio base stations to receive the message based on the second radio base station being associated with a priority higher than a priority associated with at least a portion of remaining radio base stations of the plurality of radio base stations,
• in response to receiving the message, establishing the emergency backhaul link to the first radio base station over an air interface,
• receiving outbound backhaul traffic from the first radio base station,
• transmitting the outbound backhaul traffic over a second backhaul link to a controller,
• receiving the inbound backhaul traffic from the controller, and
• transmitting the inbound backhaul traffic to the first radio base station.