Wednesday, April 29, 2020

How to upgrade RAN in the aspect of fibre network limitations

RAN (Radio Access Network)

What is RAN? External radio access network (RAN) domain interfaces are standardized on 3GPP, as is the functional behavior of the RAN domain as a whole. Below the high-end 3GPP specifications, it leaves room for innovation to improve the network thanks to built-in RAN addition capabilities - flexibility that has resulted in continuous improvement in many areas, including spectrum efficiency, energy efficiency and service property improvements.

Crucial Fiber Optic Challenge

Implementing 5G will cause a massive demand for existing fiber optic routes, many of which may not have been designed as expected. In large metropolitan areas, 5G cell areas will be denser in number and denser in fibre per site - the Small Cell Forum estimates up to 350 small cells per square kilometer in dense urban areas [1] with the number of fibers driven for new radios and new bands for 4G LTE and 5G.

These new requirements can overwhelm existing fiber meter assets, designed primarily for enterprise customers. The bottom line is that in many areas there is simply not enough "ground" fibre to support multi-operator plans for LTE Advanced and 5G.

Solving this problem by adding more fiber will have a considerable cost and time to impact the market by deploying 5G. To complicate this challenge, the fact that many of the affected sites are on poles and poles where it is difficult, if not impossible, to deploy additional equipment due to licensing restrictions.

If these restrictions are not a concern today, there is no doubt that they will become urgent because RAN planners are advancing capacity building implementations such as aggregating carriers and new bands such as LAA. And CBRS, not to mention 5G.

Find an effective solution

So, what's the solution? Conventional DWDM (Dense Wave Division Multiplexing) can be different or even avoid additional investment in fibre by transmitting many radio links on each fibre, making each fibre much more efficient. However, with many of these locations located on pylons and street lights, the awkward hardware of DWDM challenges deployment. Many of the existing DWDM solutions are not designed for outdoor use, do not support different terminal counts, or can not be installed easily on a pole due to their size or configuration. What is needed is a DWDM lens designed for this kind of deployment scenario.

Fronthaul designed for compaction

Ericsson has developed solutions to this challenge that are aligned perfectly with the deployment scenarios for small cells that are used commonly in densely populated metropolitan areas, including utilities. With the Fronthaul 6000 DWDM portfolio, transportation planners can overcome fibre-optic network utilisation before impacting deployment time for LTE Advanced and 5G, while avoiding major investments in fiber optics.

Ericsson's fronthaul (both active and passive) has a very small footprint, a variety of filter types and sizes, and enhanced for outdoor use. The solution can support 24 radios on a single fibre strand and has the industry's highest port density. Various masking options are available to reduce the allowed delay and simplify the installation. Ericsson's DWDM SFPs are optimized for use in 5G radios and harsh environments, ensuring the best possible end-to-end performance.

Also Read: Security networks

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