C-RAN and Optical Fronthaul Latency in Representative Network Topologies

IF 6.3 Q1 ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC

IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society Pub Date : 2025-02-17 DOI:10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3542479

Dave Townend;Stuart D. Walker;Neil Parkin;Anvar Tukmanov

{"title":"C-RAN and Optical Fronthaul Latency in Representative Network Topologies","authors":"Dave Townend;Stuart D. Walker;Neil Parkin;Anvar Tukmanov","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2025.3542479","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a feasibility study aimed at understanding centralized radio access network (C-RAN) deployments based on incumbent distributed radio access network (D-RAN) topologies. A model is derived to allow realistic latency characteristics to be calculated for fronthaul connectivity between existing cell sites and transport network aggregation nodes (hubs) suitable for baseband centralization. Analysis has demonstrated that as much as 96% of urban cell site neighbor pairs could satisfy C-RAN fronthaul latency budgets if baseband processing were to be centralized at the local transport hub and 91% when centralized at the regional transport hub using single mode fiber. Findings suggest that the feasibility of advanced coordinated transmission schemes between such pairings could be realized based on existing real-world fiber deployment topologies. Furthermore, the proportion of sites that could support C-RAN requirements could be increased further to 97% when aggregated at local transport hubs and 95% at regional hubs where hollow core fiber transport solutions are employed.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"6 ","pages":"1438-1445"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10891156","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10891156/","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

This paper presents a feasibility study aimed at understanding centralized radio access network (C-RAN) deployments based on incumbent distributed radio access network (D-RAN) topologies. A model is derived to allow realistic latency characteristics to be calculated for fronthaul connectivity between existing cell sites and transport network aggregation nodes (hubs) suitable for baseband centralization. Analysis has demonstrated that as much as 96% of urban cell site neighbor pairs could satisfy C-RAN fronthaul latency budgets if baseband processing were to be centralized at the local transport hub and 91% when centralized at the regional transport hub using single mode fiber. Findings suggest that the feasibility of advanced coordinated transmission schemes between such pairings could be realized based on existing real-world fiber deployment topologies. Furthermore, the proportion of sites that could support C-RAN requirements could be increased further to 97% when aggregated at local transport hubs and 95% at regional hubs where hollow core fiber transport solutions are employed.

查看原文本刊更多论文

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society Multiple-

CiteScore

13.70

自引率

3.80%

发文量

审稿时长

10 weeks

期刊介绍： The IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society (OJ-COMS) is an open access, all-electronic journal that publishes original high-quality manuscripts on advances in the state of the art of telecommunications systems and networks. The papers in IEEE OJ-COMS are included in Scopus. Submissions reporting new theoretical findings (including novel methods, concepts, and studies) and practical contributions (including experiments and development of prototypes) are welcome. Additionally, survey and tutorial articles are considered. The IEEE OJCOMS received its debut impact factor of 7.9 according to the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) 2023. The IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society covers science, technology, applications and standards for information organization, collection and transfer using electronic, optical and wireless channels and networks. Some specific areas covered include: Systems and network architecture, control and management Protocols, software, and middleware Quality of service, reliability, and security Modulation, detection, coding, and signaling Switching and routing Mobile and portable communications Terminals and other end-user devices Networks for content distribution and distributed computing Communications-based distributed resources control.