RAN Revolution with NGFI (xHaul) for 5G

Authors:
  • ICI Chih-Lin
    I Chih-Lin
  • JHJinri Huang
    Jinri Huang
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Abstract
From “Rethinking Ring and Young” in 2011 to proposing NGFI (xHaul) in 2014, the RAN revolutionary path to meet ambitious 5G demands has been charted out. Traditional TDM based fronthaul solutions, e.g., CPRI, fell short both in required BW and architecture flexibility. Next generation fronthaul interface (NGFI, aka xHaul) proposed by China Mobile targeting a packet-based, traffic-dependent, and antenna scale-independent interface will be central to the 5G RAN revolution. The concept has been widely accepted in the industry and both IEEE and 3GPP, among others, are taking this approach towards 5G. This presentation will bring forth the latest progress within China Mobile and in the global industry. Specifically, a two-level NGFI architecture will be highlighted, and the function split options with associated requirements in, e.g. latency, bandwidth and synchronization will be presented. In addition, the opportunity of SDAI integration and challenge of SDN application will be discussed.

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