Fronthaul Challenges &

Opportunities
Anna Pizzinat, Philippe Chanclou Orange Labs Networks
LTE world summit 2014
Session : backhaul summit
23-25 June 2014, Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands

Contents

1. Cloud RAN

Cloud RAN drivers

Local RAN
Centralized RAN

2. Fronthaul

Fiber fronthaul and wireless fronthaul

3. Conclusion

Centralize if you can, distribute if you must

Cloud-RAN compared to Distributed-RAN

Conventional Architecture

Standard BS

Cloud RAN Architectures

BBU Remoted

BBU Centralised

Intra BBU Pooling + CoMP

Inter BBU Pooling + CoMP

Possible future products

Traditional
Site

Remote Head
Site (RRU)

3 cells (1
site) per
BBU

BBU

Backhaul
Copper
M-Wave
Fibre

BS

BS

Upto 30
cells per
BBU

30 or
more cells
per BBU

30 or
more cells
per BBU

30 or
more cells
per BBU

BS

Intra-site
BBU pooling
Radio
Radio
Radio
(typ . 3 cells/sectors max
and several
Mobile
Central
Office
BBU
Technologies:
2G,BBU1
3G,4G) BBU2
3 to 12 fronthaul links

Fibre
Central Office

X2

Backhaul
Copper
M-Wave
Fibre

Upto 30
cells per
BBU

Site 2

Fibre

Radio

Site 1

Upto 30
cells per
BBU

3 cells (1
site) per
BBU

Fibre

BS

Site

Fibre

Co-Ax

Site

Future CRAN

Phase 2 CRAN

Phase 1 CRAN

Backhaul
Copper
M-Wave
Fibre

Backhaul
Copper
M-Wave
Fibre

Fibre between remote BBU and Radio head known as Fronthaul CRAN = Cloud RAN

BBU1

Internal

Backhaul
Copper
M-Wave
Fibre

Inter-site BBU
pooling:
Fibre
Fibre
Fibre
Fibre
Fibre
Central Office
30 - ?hundreds?
Switching Layer
BBU2
BBU3
fronthaul
linksBBU2 BBU3
BBU1
Internal

Backhaul
Copper
M-Wave
Fibre

Internal

Backhaul
Copper
M-Wave
Fibre

BBU = Base Band Unit

Backhaul
Copper
M-Wave
Fibre

Internal

Backhaul
Copper
M-Wave
Fibre

Backhaul
Copper
M-Wave
Fibre

BS = Base Station RRH = Remote Radio Head

C-RAN: centralized BBU

Already deployed in some countries.

Wireless

RRH

RRH
RRH

Optical Fiber
Digital-RoF

Fronthaul : CPRI

Central Office
BBU

System
module

RRH AAA,
Active Antenna Arrays

CoMP=Coordinated MultiPoint

BBU

System
module

RRH

IP/MPLS
network
S1

BBU

System
module

RRH

RRH

Today one BBU can already manage 6 RRH.

Next generation of BBU products will support multiple sites
(first level of pooling) and an internal interface to enable
CoMP support.

Backhaul

C-RAN: intra & inter BBU pooling + CoMP

4 Cs of C-RAN: Centralization, Cloud, Cooperation, Clean
4

At research level: reach BBU pooling at user equipment (UE) level

C-RAN drivers
Interest coming from network operational teams : site engineering
solution due to increased network rollout difficulties
Antenna site simplification: footprint reduction, renting cost
reduction, reduced time to install

Antennas sites with negotiation problems

Adding new radio access technologies on existing sites with very

limited space
Find new locations to replace sites that have to be switched off or
solution for failed negotiation sites
Reducing building cost (crane, metallic structure, etc.) and renting cost
Reducing the electrical consumption, maintenance on site
Less or not any cooling cabinets and shelters
Decrease antenna site time to build and time to repair

Contribute to RAN strategies about

Tower sharing
Solar powered antenna site
Simplification of operational installation procedures at antenna sites

Drivers = cost reductions & ease of deployment

5

C-RAN drivers
Radio performances, very low latency between BBUs enables:

Better performance in mobility

Improved uplink coverage
Higher capacity and improved cell edge performance with inter-site CoMP
When BBUs are centralized (e.g. with C-RAN), it means pooling and aggregation
gains possible across a number of sites and energy efficient (see slide in annex)
C-RAN is future proof for LTE-A and beyond
In case of hetnets, higher interference is expected

The same BBU shared between small cells and parent macrocell could provide even
higher gains than in a macrocell scenario.
RRH

RRH

Central
Office

RRH

RRH

System
module

RRH

RRH

BBU

RRH

RRH
RRH

BBUs are in a secured location: no need for IPSec

The new fronthaul segment is the key to assess the TCO (total cost of ownership)
6

How to build a fronthaul solution?

technical
aspects

1. Technical requirements:
CPRI: digitized radio signal high data rates
3 sectors LTE 20MHz 2x2 MIMO 3x2.457Gbit/s
Complete radio configuration LTE+ 3G+ 2G: up to 15 RRHs
Latency + synchronization + jitter also to be taken into account

regulatory
aspects *

business
aspects

2. Business aspects: low cost and scalability

3. Regulated countries: the fronthaul solution must be
available for other operators wholesale offer

Fronthaul must be monitored to provide SLA

by dedicated fiber monitoring solution

RRH

RRH
RRH

different levels of SLA are possible

demarcation
point

Antenna site demarcation point

Optical Fiber

outdoor compliant and as simple as possible

3. Non-Regulated countries:
fronthaul provided by the RAN vendor

Optical fiber is needed for the fronthaul

7

Wireless fronthaul shall also be considered

demarcation
point

Central
Office
BBU

RRH

RRH
RRH

demarcation
point

BBU

Wireless
BBU

Mobile
operator

fiber / wireless provider

Mobile
operator

Local C-RAN

Micro/small cell
Macro cell

Micro/small cell

RRH

RRH

Cell site
cabinet

RRH

Wireless
or
Optical Fiber

RRH

RRH
RRH

coax
RRU

BBU

RRU

Wireless
or
Optical Fiber

RRU

Central
office

CSG

BBU
BBU
BBU

backhaul
8

Wireless fronthaul: a reality today !

RRH

RRH

Antenna

WFM

Antenna

WFM

Antenna

BBU

RRH

FrontLink 58 Product

Digital Interfaces

RF Interface

Wireless fronthaul on Orange commercial network with FrontLink solution from

Three sectors LTE 2600 MIMO 2x2 3x2.457Gbit/s CPRI on a wireless fronthaul link
In less than 70 MHz bandwidth
30 cm

Wireless fronthaul: similar KPIs as fiber

Fiber-based
Fronthaul

Wireless Fronthaul

Fiber-based Fronthaul

Network accessibility

Fiber-based Fronthaul

Wireless Fronthaul

Network retainability

Wireless Fronthaul

Network mobility
10

Apple to apple comparison between fiber and wireless fronthaul over 3-months period

Wireless fronthaul: similar KPIs as fiber

RTT ping 32 bytes

RTT ping 1400 bytes

Network integrity
11

Apple to apple comparison between fiber and wireless fronthaul over 3-months period

Wireless fronthaul enables local C-RAN

Macro site
Remote macro sector
Micro sector (3G and/or 4G)
Wireless Fronthaul

Remote
macro
sector

Macro site
local C-RAN
Remote
macro
sector

Remote
Micro sector

Remotre
Micro sector

Remote
Micro sector

With wireless fronthaul, turn existing macro site into local C-RAN
12

Easier and faster deployment, same network architecture, better radio performance

From local C-RAN to centralized RAN

Mobile coverage
done by only RRHs

Central
office

Fronthaul

13

BBUs
Stack

BBU

BBU

BBU

BBU

BBU

BBU

BBU

BBU

BBU

BBU

BBU

BBU

How to build a fronthaul solution?

Focus on fiber fronthaul
Local RAN

Mobile Backhaul
(Carrier Ethernet, PON, MW)

RRH

RRH

RRU: Remote Radio Unit RRH: Remote Radio Head

BBU: BaseBand Unit
CSG: Cell-Site Gateway
D-RoF: Digital Radio over Fiber, CPRI or OBSAI

Central Office

RRH

Cell site
cabinet
RRU
BBU

coax

Wireless

CSG

fibre

RRU
RRU

BBU

Centralised RAN
Mobile Fronthaul

RRH

RRH

Wireless

IP/MPLS
network

RRH

RRH
RRH

RRH

D-RoF

BBU

fibre
Demarcation
point

Optical
Distribution
Network

BBU

Demarcation
point

BBU

Carrier Network

Dark fiber

(Eth., OTN, PON)

RRH

RRH
RRH

RRH

RRH

D-RoF

BBU
BBU
BBU

Not enough fiber available?

14

RRH

Carrier fronthaul

BBU

D-RoF

BBU
BBU

Challenges: latency, jitter, synchronization

Too expensive for OTN

How to build a fronthaul solution?

Focus on fiber fronthaul
Dark fiber

PROS

CONS

RRH

RRH
RRH
D-RoF

BBU
BBU
BBU

Native fronthaul solution

Need fibers, lot of fibers

No native monitoring and OAM

High efficiency fiber sharing

Native OAM and demarcation

Risk on performance (latency, synchro)

needed for CPRI
CPRI rate dependent
Power supply required
Foot print (cooling cabinet)
Cost issue

Carrier Network
(Eth., OTN, PON)
RRH

RRH
RRH

BBU

D-RoF

BBU
BBU

Carrier fronthaul
RRH

RRH
RRH

BBU

D-RoF

BBU

Shared fiber

15

Passive WDM
low footprint

BBU

Active WDM:
- provide infrastructure monitoring and OAM
- clear demarcation point
- CPRI transparent (no framing, bit rate independent)
- multiplexing low and high CPRI rate and other
traffics (alarm, GPS)
- CWDM with colorized transceivers (outdoor
compatible) already available
- scalability to DWDM with colorless and outdoor
transceivers under investigation

Conclusions and next steps

Centralize if you can, distribute if you must

- Radio Site engineering solution (footprint reduced, energy

C-RAN drivers
and global
perspective

efficiency, less operations on site, etc.)

- Radio performance improvements and future proof for LTE-A
- Hybrid Fronthaul/Backhaul solution needed to address HetNets
- C-RAN to co-exist with regular RAN architecture
- BBU in secured place and existing location

Wireless
Fronthaul

- Wireless fronthaul commercially available today (up to 7.3Gpbs):

enabling network densification and local C-RAN
- Use of millimetric bands in future for massive small cells (mRRU)
deployment (Nx10Gbps fronthaul links in dense urban areas)

Fiber Fronthaul

- CWDM ready: good, simple, cost effective option with additional

passive fiber monitoring
- DWDM tomorrow with colorless transceivers and high number of
available wavelengths

16

Is it time to rethink CPRI?

Energy efficiency

- No sleep mode?
- Constant rate

Standardisation

-CPRI is coming from industry forums and not from a

standardization group (cf. ETSI Open Radio Innitiative)
-CPRI is defined as a backplane extension and not a network
interface

CPRI redefinition

- CPRI transport: include natively the OAM (Operations,

Administration and Maintenance) of the medium: Fiber, wireless,
etc
- New function splitting interface to reduce bandwidth?
- Packetized fronthaul?
- Network architecture of Fronthaul (PtP, MPtoMP)
- Reference configuration including demarcation point

17

merci

Energy consumption gain

Calculation made on Rennes area France (one on 10 big cities)

15-km square coverage area,
86 cell sites, 13 intermediate central offices and one Core CO
Total Energy Consumption [ kW ]

240
220
200
180
160

PSVAC *
OTN
CSGW
Optical transceiver
BBU
RRH

Based on average
consumption of
commercial
equipments

140
120
100
80
60

19

*PSVAC: Power Supplying, Ventilation and Air Conditioning

CSGW: Cell Site GateWay