Book excerpt: Beyond 2020, wireless communication systems will have to support more than 1,000 times the traffic volume of today's systems. This extremely high traffic load is a major issue faced by 5G designers and researchers. This challenge will be met by a combination of parallel techniques that will use more spectrum more flexibly, realize higher spectral efficiency, and densify cells. Novel techniques and paradigms must be developed to meet these goals. The book addresses diverse key-point issues of next-generation wireless communications systems and identifies promising solutions. The book's core is concentrated to techniques and methods belonging to what is generally called radio access network.