Dimensioning Flex Ethernet Groups for the transport of 5G NR fronthaul traffic in C-RAN scenarios

Abstract

This article overviews the new Flex Ethernet implementation agreement standardised by the Optical Internetworking Forum and its applicability for the transport of Massive MIMO 5G New Radio fronthaul traffic with deterministic delay. Thanks to the proper dimensioning of FlexE calendar slots to each individual fronthaul traffic flow, bounded delays below the 100 μs requirement imposed by the IEEE 802.1CM can be achieved.