Abstract
In modern implementations of Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN), the fronthaul transport network will often be packet-based and it will have a multi-hop architecture built with general-purpose switches using network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN). This paper studies the joint design of uplink radio and fronthaul transmission strategies for a C-RAN with a packet-based fronthaul network. To make an efficient use of multiple routes that carry fronthaul packets from remote radio heads (RRHs) to cloud, as an alternative to more conventional packet-based multi-route reception or coding, a multiple description coding (MDC) strategy is introduced that operates directly at the level of baseband signals. MDC ensures an improved quality of the signal received at the cloud in conditions of low network congestion, i.e., when more fronthaul packets are received within a tolerated deadline. The advantages of the proposed MDC approach as compared to the traditional path diversity scheme are validated via extensive numerical results.
Highlights
In a Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) architecture, a cloud unit, or baseband processing unit (BBU), carries out baseband signal processing on behalf of a number of radio units, or remote radio heads (RRHs), that are connected to the cloud through an interface referred to as fronthaul links [1].The C-RAN technology is recognized as one of the dominant architectural solutions for future wireless networks due to the promised reduction in capital and operational expenditures and the capability of large-scale interference management [2]
Thanks to multiple description coding (MDC), the signal quality varies depending on the number of packets arriving at the cloud, we propose that user equipments (UEs) leverage the broadcast approach in order to enable the adaptation of the transmission rate to the effective received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) [15,16]
We assume that each fronthaul packet has BF = 6000 bits (i.e., 750 bytes) which corresponds to a half of the maximum payload size per frame defined in Ethernet [10]
Summary
In a Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) architecture, a cloud unit, or baseband processing unit (BBU), carries out baseband signal processing on behalf of a number of radio units, or remote radio heads (RRHs), that are connected to the cloud through an interface referred to as fronthaul links [1]. Thanks to MDC, the signal quality varies depending on the number of packets arriving at the cloud, we propose that user equipments (UEs) leverage the broadcast approach in order to enable the adaptation of the transmission rate to the effective received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) [15,16]. This can be done by using either conventional packet-based duplication [11,12] or the proposed MDC approach.
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