Design and analysis of 5G network architecture with orthogonal frequency division multiple access based passive optical network

Abstract

The demand for high-speed internet with a high-capacity network is increasing at an exponential rate. It is quite challenging to accommodate a large number of users with multiple communication devices without degrading the quality of service at an acceptable cost. Therefore, strong communication technology is required that can provide high data rates along with the provision of multiple connecting devices for different users. The 5G network can adjust large users with multiple device connectivity by providing high bandwidth with a minimum delay which depends on the underlying network architecture for connecting different components of the systems. Optical Fiber is used as a transmission media to connect the densely deployed Remote Radio Units (RRUs) with the Baseband Units (BBUs) at the Centralized Radio Access Network (C-RAN) that makes the architecture quite complex and expensive in terms of deployment and maintenance cost. Here in this paper, we propose an architecture by replacing an optical fiber with Free Space Optics (FSO) at the front-end of the 5G network. In addition, an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) is implemented to provide high spectrum efficiency and high data rate in an adverse channel environment. The performance analysis of the proposed system is done in Optisystem by using the constellation points which shows that the proposed architecture can support data rate up to 40 Gbps using 512 subcarriers and 10 Gbps per BBU with QPSK over 4 km of FSO medium. In the end, a comparative cost analysis of the proposed architecture with the conventional architecture is done, which shows a cost reduction of 21 % by the proposed system.