Centralized RAN (C-RAN)

WHAT IS IT? AND WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?

Paul Kennard, CTO June 13, 2013

THE DATA STORM

LOW ARPU
low or stable average revenue per user

NETWORK COSTS

increased network CAPEX and OPEX

NEW DEVICES

explosion of smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices

NEW CONSUMERS
5 billion consumers will have access to internet

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DENSER NETWORKS

the only way to deal with the data storm is to have denser wireless networks with ever increasing spectral efficiency

This has several problems:

How

to meet the required coverage and capacity? to deal with interference?

How How

to manage increased complexity:

increase spectral efficiency? manage customers data?

To To To

deal with higher CAPEX and OPEX?

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STRATEGIES FOR DENSER NETWORKS

RAN DECENTRALIZATION (HetNet)
TRADITIONAL MACRO CELLS SMALL CELLS, SON

BACKHAUL

RAN CENTRALIZATION (C-RAN)

DISTRIBUTED ANTENNAS (DAS) REMOTE RADIO HEADS (RRH)

FRONTHAUL

OFFLOAD

WiFi OFFLOAD

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CENTRALIZED RAN (C-RAN) TERMINOLOGY

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C-RAN IMPLEMENTATION
JUST ANOTHER FORM OF SMALL CELL

TRADITIONAL MACRO CELL DEPLOYMENT

CELL SPLIT USING FRONT HAUL

Source: NGMN

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ADVANTAGES OF C-RAN

Resource pooling Greener infrastructure (re-use) Base station virtualization Simplified management and operation Coordination for interference mitigation (ICIC)

Multi technology support

No GPS in each remote site

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MAIN C-RAN CHALLENGE IS FRONTHAUL

Difficult to reach RRU locations (mostly urban)

Non traditional deployments (street furniture, non-tower)

CPRI interface creates new challenges (capacity, latency, management, etc)
PLUS FIBER IS NOT EVERYWHERE, AND NOT FOR FREE SO WIRELESS SOLUTIONS FOR FRONTHAUL WILL BE NEEDED

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BUT CAPACITY AND LATENCY REQUIREMENTS PUSH THE BOUNDARIES OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES
Latency

RRH CPRI

RRH CPRI

<100us
TRANSMISSION MEDIUM
(FIBER / MICROWAVE)

BBU

CPRI

IP BACKHAUL

CORE

WCDMA

LTE

COMPRESSED CPRI CAPACITY REQUIREMENTS

SCENARIO
3 Sectors, 4x4 MIMO, 1 Carrier
1 Sectors, 2x2 MIMO, 1 Carrier

5 MHz
369 Mbps
98 Mbps

10 MHz
2.9 Gbps
461 Mbps

20 MHz
5.9 Gbps
983 Mbps

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WHICH MEANS NEW INNOVATIONS (IN WIRELESS TRANSPORT) WILL BE REQUIRED

smaller

lower latency

higher capacity

faster

low power

cheaper
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C-RAN offers many benefits for operators however Fronthaul challenges need to be addressed to make it a reality

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W W W. AV I AT N E T W O R K S . C O M