Service providers worldwide are in a race to deploy 5G technology and services. To achieve the promise of greater speeds and capacity with 5G, operators will need to densify their networks, resulting in significant growth in the number of macro cells and small cells. To optimize the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the RAN, many service providers are planning to leverage Open-RAN architectures that centralize baseband processing functionalities. This allows for a much more efficient utilization of baseband unit (BBU) resources and improves operational efficiency at cell sites. However, by moving process-intensive functions to an aggregation site, bandwidth and latency transport requirements will increase.
Service providers worldwide are in a race to deploy 5G technology and services. To achieve the promise of greater speeds and capacity with 5G, operators will need to densify their networks, resulting in significant growth in the number of macro cells and small cells. To optimize the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the RAN, many service providers are planning to leverage Open-RAN architectures that centralize baseband processing functionalities. This allows for a much more efficient utilization of baseband unit (BBU) resources and improves operational efficiency at cell sites. However, by moving process-intensive functions to an aggregation site, bandwidth and latency transport requirements will increase.