Total Cost of Ownership of Digital vs. Analog Radio-Over-Fiber Architectures for 5G FronthaulingShow others and affiliations
2020 (English)In: IEEE Access, E-ISSN 2169-3536, Vol. 8, p. 223562-223573, article id 9293022
Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The article analyzes the total cost of ownership (TCO) of 5G fronthauling solutions based on analog and digital radio-over-fiber (RoF) architectures in cloud radio access networks (C-RANs). The capital and operational expenditures (CAPEX, OPEX) are assessed, for a 10-year period, considering three different RoF techniques: intermediate frequency analog RoF (IF-A-RoF), digital signal processing (DSP) assisted analog RoF (DSP-A-RoF), and digital RoF (D-RoF) based on the common public radio interface (CPRI) specifications. The greenfield deployment scenario under exam includes both fiber trenching (FT) and fiber leasing (FL) options. The TCO is assessed while varying (i) the number of aggregated subcarriers, (ii) the number of three-sector antennas located at the base station, and (iii) the mean fiber-hop length. The comparison highlights the significance that subcarrier aggregation has on the cost efficiency of the analog RoF solutions. In addition, the analysis details the contribution of each cost category to the overall CAPEX and OPEX values. The obtained results indicate that subcarrier aggregation via DSP results in high cost efficiency for a mobile fronthaul network, while a CPRI-based architecture together with FL brings the highest OPEX value.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. , 2020. Vol. 8, p. 223562-223573, article id 9293022
Keywords [en]
5G, cloud radio access networks (C-RAN), common public radio interface (CPRI), operational expenditure (CAPEX), operational expenditure (OPEX), optical fronthaul, radio-over-fiber, total cost of ownership (TCO), 5G mobile communication systems, Cost benefit analysis, Cost effectiveness, Costs, Digital radio, Digital signal processing, Efficiency, Electronic document exchange, Fibers, Network architecture, Radio access networks, Radio broadcasting, Cost efficiency, Deployment scenarios, Digital signal processing (DSP), Intermediate frequencies, Operational expenditures, Radio interface, Sector antennas, Total cost of ownership
National Category
Natural Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-51476DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3044396Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85098271040OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-51476DiVA, id: diva2:1516298
2021-01-112021-01-112023-06-02Bibliographically approved