Abstract
In future mobile networks, the evolution of optical transport architectures enabling the flexible, scalable interconnection of Baseband Units (BBUs) and Radio Units (RUs) with heterogeneous interfaces is a significant issue. In this paper, we propose a multi-technology hybrid transport architecture that comprises both analog and digital-Radio over Fiber (RoF) mobile network segments relying on a dynamically reconfigurable optical switching node. As a step forward, the integration of the discussed network layout into an existing mobile infrastructure is demonstrated, enabling the support of real-world services through both standard digital and Analog–Intermediate- Frequency over Fiber (A-IFoF)-based converged fiber–wireless paths. Emphasis has been placed on the implementation of a real-time A-IFoF transceiver that is employed through a single embedded fully programmable gateway array (FPGA)-based platform that serves as an Ethernet to Intermediate Frequency (IF) bridge for the transmission of legacy traffic over the analog network segment. The experimental evaluation of the proposed concept was based on the dynamic optical routing of the legacy Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI), 1.5 GBaud analog-intermediate frequency-over-fiber (A-IFoF)/mmWave and 10 Gbps binary optical waveforms, showing acceptable error vector magnitude (EVM) values for the complex radio waveforms and error-free operation for binary optical streams, with Bit Error Rate (BER) values less than 10−9. Finally, the end-to-end proof-of-concept demonstration of the proposed solution was achieved through the delivery of 4K video streaming and Internet Protocol (IP) calls over a mobile core network.
Highlights
With the rise of Smart Building, Smart Cities and Industry 4.0, future mobile networks will encounter the challenge of delivering enormous data rates for the interconnection of a massive number of machines and user devices
Within the already mature, digitized fronthauling environment, it is inevitable that Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI)-based links will remain the most common interface for the interconnection between the baseband units (BBUs) and the Remote Radio Heads (RRHs), despite the inherently limited bandwidth efficiency of the CPRI protocol and the flexibility limitations that have been widely discussed during the past years [4]
The implemented fully programmable gateway array (FPGA)-based Analog–Intermediate- Frequency over Fiber (A-IFoF) transceiver reported in [44] serve13d oafs1a6 bridge for the transmission of the 1 Gbps SFP traffic, modulated by a 10 GHz externally modulated laser (EML) that was emitting at λ4
Summary
With the rise of Smart Building, Smart Cities and Industry 4.0, future mobile networks will encounter the challenge of delivering enormous data rates for the interconnection of a massive number of machines and user devices. The exploitation of optical switching-enabled hybrid transport layouts that are handling standardized legacy traffic has been showcased in [3,13–15], including, for example, the concurrent transmission of multiple CPRI lanes in [13] or the co-existence of 5G, passive optical network (PON) and datacenter (DC) traffic in [3] Inspired by these works, similar architectures could accommodate reconfigurable fiber and fiber–wireless (FiWi) transport architectures, relying on the flexible point-to-multipoint (PtMP) connectivity of both analog and digital centralized transceivers with variable radio units, located anywhere in the field. The adoption of new fiber transmission schemes along the standardDigital-Radio over Fiber (D-RoF) solution has been explored in lab-scale experiments targeting the demonstration of mixed analog and digital formats’ propagation over shared fiber infrastructure [9] aiming to show the benefits of hybrid A/D-RoF fronthauling In this direction, [12] discusses the employment of an Arrayed Waveguide Grating Router (AWGR)-enabled PtMP transport topology, aggregating and steering A-RoF traffic to the radio units.
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