The 5G Mobile and

Wireless Communications:
Views on C-RAN

Dr. Afif Osseiran, Ericsson

METIS Project Coordinator
Concertation meeting#12 2013-10-23

www.metis2020.com

METIS Partners

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Acknowledgement
Special thanks to Gerd Zimmermann & Heinz Droste
(DT), Michal Maternia (NSN), Josef Eichinger &
mer Bulakci (Huawei ERC), and Neiva Lindqvist
and Hugo Tullberg (Ericsson) for their input

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Content
Introduction: Architecture trends
C-RAN
Key Issues with C-RAN

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Intro. : Architecture Trends

Horizontal topics:

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D2D: Device-to-device
MMC: Massive machine communications
MN: Moving networks
UDN: Ultra-dense networks
URC: Ultra-reliable communications

C-RAN: Architecture
Definition from Radio: C-RAN = Cloud or centralized RAN
Coordination of multiple antenna ports / cells & Joint processing of radio signals
A number of transceiver points (TPs) connected to common base-band processing unit
Connection of TPs to BBU processing mostly via fiber

Types of C-RANs:
Centralized C-RAN covering a huge area
Local C-RAN covers a small area, e.g., hot spot area in a city
C-RAN + Mobile Core Distributed Functions (incl. optional local breakout or Content
Delivery Network-CDN)
Private C-RAN owned by service providers like operators of a mall, stadium, and city
government
Virtual
Transmit
Nodes

C-RAN + Mobile Core

Distributed Functions (incl.
optional local breakout or CDN)

High speed front-haul (fibre)

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Cooperation / Coordination

C-RAN: Degree of centralization?

Massive cooperation of multiple transmit and

receive points (antennas)
Optimized pooling/scheduling of radio resources in
frequency/time/resource
Efficient consideration of intra- and inter-cell
interference
Inclusion of core-related functions
Virtualized platforms can also handle the
resources across operator domains in an
optimized way.

Power density

Advantages of Centralized C-RAN:

Time

Frequency /channel bandwidth

Keep balance between performance and

feasibility (centralized vs. decentralized):
For each function there is a trade-off between
performance

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C-RAN: Example of deployment in 2020

C-RAN

D2D / URC
CoMP

MMC

Massive
MIMO

Internet

Traditional
Access Nodes
Internet

UDN

High speed front-haul

High speed front-haul

C-RAN + Mobile Core
Distributed Functions
(incl. optional local
breakout or CDN)

Mobile Core
Centralized Functions + OAM

Local C-RAN
C-RAN

Virtual
Transmit Nodes

C-RAN

Heterogeneous C-RAN deployments

Large scale cooperative Nodes as well as UEs
Virtual Transmit Nodes Fixed cell concept disappears
UE-centric
communications
Dynamic selection of transmit nodes
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Key research issues for C-RAN

Control of heterogeneous deployments based on SDN
Cooperation & Interaction among private and operator owned C-RANs

Integration of fronthaul and backhaul with limited latency and capacity

Interference, Mobility and service continuity
Which functions of the RAN can be managed by Cloud based computing
Cloud edge design (also in connection data caching, reliability, security
etc.)

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