Cloud radio access network (C-RAN): a primer

TLDR

Mobile operators face rising capital and operating costs amid stagnant revenue growth, and Cloud Radio Access Network (C‑RAN) is proposed as a next‑generation access network to address this challenge. This article surveys C‑RAN and proposes a novel logical structure comprising physical, control, and service planes. The new architecture emphasizes a service cloud and service‑oriented resource scheduling, and introduces a coordinated user‑scheduling algorithm with parallel optimum precoding that leverages cloud computation for improved performance. The proposed scheme demonstrates that C‑RAN enables the design of new algorithms tailored to its architecture, rather than merely migrating existing ones.

Abstract

In the era of mobile Internet, mobile operators are facing pressure on ever-increasing capital expenditures and operating expenses with much less growth of income. Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) is expected to be a candidate of next generation access network techniques that can solve operators' puzzle. In this article, on the basis of a general survey of C-RAN, we present a novel logical structure of C-RAN that consists of a physical plane, a control plane, and a service plane. Compared to traditional architecture, the proposed C-RAN architecture emphasizes the notion of service cloud, service-oriented resource scheduling and management, thus it facilitates the utilization of new communication and computer techniques. With the extensive computation resource offered by the cloud platform, a coordinated user scheduling algorithm and parallel optimum precoding scheme are proposed, which can achieve better performance. The proposed scheme opens another door to design new algorithms matching well with C-RAN architecture, instead of only migrating existing algorithms from traditional architecture to C-RAN.