The fronthaul portion of a C-RAN (Cloud Radio Access Network) telecommunications architecture comprises the intermediate links between the centralized radio controllers and the radio heads (or masts) at the "edge" of a cellular network. [1] In recent years fronthaul is becoming more essential as 5G becomes more mainstream. [2]
In general it is coincident with the backhaul network, but subtly different. Technically in a C-RAN the backhaul data is only decoded from the fronthaul network at the centralised controllers, from where it is then transferred to the core network.
It comprises dedicated fibers carrying data in the CPRI or OBSAI format. [3] This fiber network is either owned or leased by the mobile network operator. In the UK for example BT Openreach owns a majority of the fiber network to radio masts. There are proposals to modify Ethernet to make it more suitable for the Fronthaul network. [4]
Recently, a novel wireless fronthaul solution has been proposed for ultra-dense small cell deployment where networked flying platforms (NFPs) such UAVs, drones, tethered balloon and high-altitude/medium-altitude/low-altitude platforms carrying FSO transceivers have been introduced as aerial hubs to aggregate the small cell traffic and offer connectivity to the core network. [5]
A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes. Wireless networking allows homes, telecommunications networks and business installations to avoid the costly process of introducing cables into a building, or as a connection between various equipment locations. Admin telecommunications networks are generally implemented and administered using radio communication. This implementation takes place at the physical level (layer) of the OSI model network structure.
A cell site, cell phone tower, cell base tower, or cellular base station is a cellular-enabled mobile device site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed to create a cell, or adjacent cells, in a cellular network. The raised structure typically supports antenna and one or more sets of transmitter/receivers transceivers, digital signal processors, control electronics, a GPS receiver for timing, primary and backup electrical power sources, and sheltering.
C Spire, formerly known as Cellular South, Inc., is a privately owned telecommunications company headquartered in Ridgeland, Mississippi. The company consists of three business divisions – C Spire Wireless, C Spire Home Fiber, and C Spire Business.
In a hierarchical telecommunications network, the backhaul portion of the network comprises the intermediate links between the core network, or backbone network, and the small subnetworks at the edge of the network.
Ceragon NetworksLtd. is a networking equipment vendor, focused on wireless point-to-point connectivity, mostly used for wireless backhaul by mobile operators and wireless service providers as well as private businesses.
The Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) standard defines an interface between Radio Equipment Control (REC) and Radio Equipment (RE). Oftentimes, CPRI links are used to carry data between cell sites/remote radio heads and base stations/baseband units.
Airspan Networks is an American telecommunications company headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The company develops Radio Access Network technology including the Sprint 'Magic Box' and cells for the Rakuten virtualized network.
Gigabit wireless is the name given to wireless communication systems whose data transfer speeds reach or exceed one gigabit per second. Such speeds are achieved with complex modulations of the signal, such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) or signals spanning many frequencies. When a signal spans many frequencies, physicists refer that a wide bandwidth signal. In the communication industry, many wireless internet service providers and cell phone companies deploy wireless radio frequency antennas to backhaul core networks, connect businesses, and even individual residential homes.
Radio over fiber (RoF) or RF over fiber (RFoF) refers to a technology whereby light is modulated by a radio frequency signal and transmitted over an optical fiber link. Main technical advantages of using fiber optical links are lower transmission losses and reduced sensitivity to noise and electromagnetic interference compared to all-electrical signal transmission.
In telecommunications, 5G is the fifth-generation technology standard for cellular networks, which cellular phone companies began deploying worldwide in 2019, and is the successor to 4G technology that provides connectivity to most current mobile phones.
C-RAN (Cloud-RAN), also referred to as Centralized-RAN, is an architecture for cellular networks. C-RAN is a centralized, cloud computing-based architecture for radio access networks that supports 2G, 3G, 4G and future wireless communication standards. Its name comes from the four 'C's in the main characteristics of C-RAN system, "Clean, Centralized processing, Collaborative radio, and a real-time Cloud Radio Access Network".
ip.access Limited is a multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and markets small cells technologies and infrastructure equipment for GSM, GPRS, EDGE, 3G, 4G and 5G. The company was acquired by Mavenir in September 2020.
Small cells are low-powered cellular radio access nodes that operate in spectrum that have a range of 10 meters to a few kilometers. They are base stations with low power consumption and cheap cost. They can provide high data rates by being deployed densely to achieve high spatial spectrum efficiency.
Mavenir Systems, Inc. is an American telecommunications software company, created in 2017 as a result of a three-way merger of existing companies and technologies, that develops and supplies cloud-native software to the communications service provider (CSP) market.
The Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA), formerly known as PCIA, is an American trade association for wireless providers and companies that build cell phone towers, rooftop wireless sites, and other facilities that transmit wireless communication signals. The Washington Post described the industry as "the people who build all those cell towers so you can actually make those calls, download that data." These technologies are collectively referred to as "wireless telecommunications infrastructure."
Self-interference cancellation (SIC) is a signal processing technique that enables a radio transceiver to simultaneously transmit and receive on a single channel, a pair of partially-overlapping channels, or any pair of channels in the same frequency band. When used to allow simultaneous transmission and reception on the same frequency, sometimes referred to as “in-band full-duplex” or “simultaneous transmit and receive,” SIC effectively doubles spectral efficiency. SIC also enables devices and platforms containing two radios that use the same frequency band to operate both radios simultaneously.
Networked flying platforms (NFPs) are unmanned flying platforms of various types including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones, tethered balloon and high-altitude/medium-altitude/low-altitude platforms (HAPs/MAPs/LAPs) carrying RF/mmWave/FSO payload (transceivers) along with an extended battery life capabilities, and are floating or moving in the air at a quasi-stationary positions with the ability to move horizontally and vertically to offer 5G and beyond 5G (B5G) cellular networks and network support services.
IEEE 1914.1 is a standard for packet-based fronthaul transport networks developed under IEEE 1914 Next Generation Fronthaul Interface – NGFI (xhaul) Working Group. NGFI (xhaul) working group is sponsored by IEEE Communications Society/Standards Development Board (COM/SDB). IEEE 1914.1 standardizes architecture and requirements for mobile fronthaul network – spanning between cell sites and centralized baseband locations in Centralized, Collaborative, Cloud and Clean Radio Access Network C-RAN.
Altiostar is a company that provides open virtual radio access network (vRAN) technology. The company is headquartered just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, with offices in Japan, Italy, the U.K., Mexico and India. The company is a subsidiary of Rakuten. Founded in 2011 by President and CEO, Ashraf Dahod, Altiostar is focused on open, virtual RAN software that they claim can integrate operation of equipment from multiple vendors.
An Aerial base station (ABS), also known as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-mounted base station (BS), is a flying antenna system that works as a hub between the backhaul network and the access network. If more than one ABS is involved in such a relaying mechanism the so-called fly ad-hoc network (FANET) is established. FANETs are an aerial form of wireless ad hoc networks (WANET)s or mobile ad hoc networks (MANET)s.