Optimizing Location of Edge Clouds with Baseband Units in Cloud Radio Access Network

Cloud radio access network architecture has become increasingly important in meeting the growing demand of high data rate services as well as managing interference among base station sites. However, this architecture is associated with high fronthaul link latencies that result into increased overall network latencies. This paper proposes a placement method for baseband units so as to lower the fronthaul link latencies. This is achieved by formulating the problem as a nonlinear optimization problem that is solved by fuzzy c-means clustering and a heuristic genetic based algorithm. The paper further investigates the user response time comparing it with the scenario before optimizing location of baseband units in edge clouds. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme greatly reduces overall fronthaul link latencies and cost of ownership in cloud radio access networks. We also show that there is an optimal number of edge clouds with baseband units for different cloud radio access network sizes. On the side of the users, the response time is greatly reduced when the baseband units are optimally placed.