ICC 2016, IEEE International Conference on Communications, May 23-27, 2016, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Cloud-RAN (CRAN) is considered as one key enabler for beyond 4G networks, offering multiplexing gains, and advanced cooperation and coordinated signal processing. However, a key obstacle in the adoption of the CRAN architecture is that it requires very high capacity and low latency fronthaul (FH) links to carry raw I/Q samples between remote radio heads (RRH) and the baseband units (BBUs). These capacity requirements could be reduced by a more flexible split of baseband processing
between BBUs and RRs. Nevertheless, while moving some of the processing back into the RRH is expected to reduce FH rates, the amount of reduction mainly depends on the split, cell load, scenario and it might also introduce some delays. To this end, this paper studies the impact of different functional splits on the FH capacity for representative scenarios. Furthermore, we propose the use of a packet-based fronthaul network and study
the joint impact of different packetization methods and RRHBBU functional splits on the FH rate and latency. Based on this study, we provide some insights on the feasibility and optimality of different combinations, and the potential multiplexing benefits in terms of numbers of RRHs one could support over a single Ethernet-based FH network.
Type:
Conference
City:
Kuala Lumpur
Date:
2016-05-23
Department:
Communication systems
Eurecom Ref:
4841
Copyright:
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