Fronthaul network design for radio access network virtualization from a CAPEX/OPEX perspective

Abstract

With the increase of mobile traffic demand and the need to reduce expenses to handle this demand, a novel solution, known as Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN), has been proposed for future radio access network. This solution involves virtualizing base stations and centralizing processing resources into a baseband processing unit (BBU) pool. C-RAN also helps fully deploying cooperative schemes used in LTE and LTE-Advanced. In this paper, we analyze C-RAN cost structure. Then, unlike previous works, we mathematically formulate cell-BBU pool assignment, taking into account fronthaul network expenditure. Two optimization models are proposed for two different architectures. We then use these formulations to develop solutions to our problem, which optimize the C-RAN costs subject to demand constraints. Through extensive experiments, cost efficiency of C-RAN architecture is discussed and the effect of different parameters is analyzed. We also derive conditions where utilizing C-RAN architecture can help cost savings.