A C‐RAN Approach for 5G Applications

5G networks are anticipated to obtain Shannon‐level and beyond throughput, and almost zero latency in future cellular networks. However, there are several challenges to solve if 5G is to outperform legacy mobile platforms; one of these is the design of the communication ‘haul.’ Traditionally, the backhaul segment connects the radio access network (RAN) to the rest of the network where the baseband processing takes place at the cell site. However, in this chapter, we will use the concept of ‘fronthaul access,’ which is recently gaining significant interest since it has the potential to support remote baseband processing based on adopting a cloud radio access network (C‐RAN) architecture that aims to mitigate (or coordinate) interference in operator‐deployed infrastructures; this eases significantly the requirements in interference‐aware transceivers. To do this, we provide a reference architecture which includes a network and protocol architecture incorporating a so‐called ‘cloud resource optimizer.’ The emergence of wireless fronthaul solutions widens the appeal of fronthaul for small‐cell deployments, because a fibre‐only solution – the technology typically used for fronthaul – is too expensive or just not available at many small‐cell sites. Moreover, we will also present the idea of virtual mobile small cells; these small cells are created on demand according to traffic demand.