Towards a Cloud-Native Radio Access Network

Abstract

Commoditization and virtualization of wireless networks are changing the economics of mobile networks to help network providers, e.g. Mobile Network Operator (MNO), Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), move from proprietary and bespoke hardware and software platforms towards an open, cost-effective, and flexible cellular ecosystem. In addition, rich and innovative local services can be efficiently materialized through cloudification by leveraging the existing infrastructure. In this work, we present a Radio Access Network as a Service (RANaaS), in which a Cloudified Centralized Radio Access Network (C-RAN) is delivered as a service. RANaaS describes the service life-cycle of an on-demand, elastic, and pay as you go RAN instantiated on top of the cloud infrastructure. Due to short deadlines in many examples of RAN, the fluctuations of processing time, introduced by the virtualization framework, have a deep impact on the C-RAN performance. While in typical cloud environments, the deadlines of processing time cannot be guaranteed, the cloudification of C-RAN, in which signal processing runs on general purpose processors inside Virtual Machines (VMs), is a challenging subject. We describe an example of real-time cloudified LTE network deployment using the OpenAirInterface (OAI) LTE implementation and OpenStack running on commodity hardware. We also show the flexibility and performance of the platform developed. Finally, we draw general conclusions on the RANaaS provisioning problem in future 5G networks.Abstract Commoditization and virtualization of wireless networks are changing the economics of mobile networks to help network providers, e.g. Mobile Network Operator (MNO), Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), move from proprietary and bespoke hardware and software platforms towards an open, cost-effective, and flexible cellular ecosystem. In addition, rich and innovative local services can be efficiently materialized through cloudification by leveraging the existing infrastructure. In this work, we present a Radio Access Network as a Service (RANaaS), in which a Cloudified Centralized Radio Access Network (C-RAN) is delivered as a service. RANaaS describes the service life-cycle of an on-demand, elastic, and pay as you go RAN instantiated on top of the cloud infrastructure. Due to short deadlines in many examples of RAN, the fluctuations of processing time, introduced by the virtualization framework, have a deep impact on the C-RAN performance. While in typical cloud environments, the deadlines of processing time cannot be guaranteed, the cloudification of C-RAN, in which signal processing runs on general purpose processors inside Virtual Machines (VMs), is a challenging subject. We describe an example of real-time cloudifed LTE network deployment using the OpenAirInterface (OAI) LTE implementation and OpenStack running on commodity hardware. We also show the flexibility and performance of the platform developed. Finally, we draw general conclusions on the RANaaS provisioning problem in future 5G networks.

Toward a Live BBU Container Migration in Wireless Networks

“…Instead, they are decoupled and moved to a centralized processing pool, including other BBUs too. Pooling BBUs together can lead to more sophisticated joint spatio-temporal processing of radio signals, while also improving the spectral efficiency [30].…”

“…The use of virtualization layers in certain C-RAN deployments, such as Virtual Machine (VM), introduces fluctuations in processing time [30]. Such fluctuations can make it challenging to maintain connectivity in C-RANs due to frequently missing real-time requirements caused by the introduction of the virtualization layer.…”

Hardware-Intrinsic Multi-Layer Security: A New Frontier for 5G Enabled IIoT

“…Hardware acceleration, flexibility, and performance provided by FPGAs are an attractive solution for 5G networks for meeting the changing and increasing demands of the wireless markets. Currently, FPGAs provide optimised solutions for 5G technologies such as cloud-based radio access network (cRAN ), virtual radio access network (vRAN), Massive multiple-input, and multiple-output (MIMO), Backhaul, Fronthaul, Digital Radio Front-End [29].…”

A C-RAN Based 5G Platform with a Fully Virtualized, SDN Controlled Optical/Wireless Fronthaul

“…For the mobile Core network, we employ a softwarebased EPC from OpenAirInterface project (i.e., openairCN [9]), which includes the implementation of the Mobility Management Entity (MME), the Home Subscriber Server (HSS), the Service Gateway (S-GW) and the Packet Gateway (P-GW). The software implementation of both EPC and RAN entities facilitates the concept of "5G infrastructure as a service" [12], where the RAN and EPC entities can be deployed in the form of VNFs (i.e., vRRH, vBBU, and vEPC), and hosted by the virtualized data center alongside Network Services and Applications. The ETSI OSM MANO framework is employed for VNF onboarding and orchestration, allowing the full automation of operational processes and tasks related to the placement and lifecycle management of all services.…”