ADVA, BT and Mavenir have announced February 26 that they will be collaborating on a number of research projects at the UK's Telecom Infra Project (TIP) Community Lab based at the BT Labs in Adastral Park, Ipswich. TIP is an engineering-focused initiative driven by operators, suppliers, developers, integrators, and startups, aimed at challenging the traditional methods used for the deployment of network infrastructure.
At the BT Labs, ADVA, BT and Mavenir will be testing and validating the benefits of Cloud RAN (vRAN) using non-ideal infrastructure for fronthaul, to try and promote innovation in future mobile network deployments. The approach is to investigate and test solutions that will dynamically reduce the cost of future network deployment by reconsidering fronthaul technologies that have previously been rejected. Today, the fronthaul between the BaseBand Control Unit (BBU) and the Remote Radio Unit (RRU) typically utilizes a fibre optic based-transmission medium incorporating a proprietary CPRI (Common Public Radio Interface) specification. This interface has restricted innovation and excluded low-cost deployment technologies such as Ethernet or point-to-point microwave. For many parts of the world where fibre is too costly or difficult to obtain, operators are unable to deploy vRAN technology. The project aims to change the status quo by evaluating fronthaul interfaces that use only one tenth of the current bandwidth and support high latencies, thereby enabling the use of copper Ethernet connections or point-to-point microwaves.
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