The world is undergoing a radical transformation with ubiquitous connectivity and the internet. GSMA Intelligence says that by 2020, almost three-quarters of the world’s population – or 5.7 billion people – will subscribe to mobile services. As mobile technologies continue to evolve, operators and equipment vendors are collaborating to help drive the development of 5G standards for early-stage deployments.
Rather than operating as separate networks, 4G, 4.5G, and 5G will be integrated into a single network architecture which makes a multitude of wireless technologies co-exist in a multidevice, multi-network future. This architecture may also integrate radio technologies in unlicensed spectrum, such as Wi-Fi.
As mobile technologies continue to evolve, sharing a part, or all, of the radio access network (RAN) can address network densification requirements, boost spectral
efficiency and give mobile operators the flexibility to redeploy infrastructure to underserved areas.
Cloud RAN (cRAN) is an upcoming concept wherein expensive baseband processing is done at a centralized location. This idea is gaining traction as it is increasingly possible to split the network side stack lower and lower down owing to the availability of high-speed and low latency ‘fronthaul’ links. This has a tremendous advantage in decreasing operating expenditure (OPEX). It also provides an opportunity for virtualization where a part of computing resources can be utilized for the wireless processing out of the total available. The computing resources allocated can be optimally used as per the demand, thereby helping achieve energy efficiency and power cost reduction.
The explosion in mobile traffic volume and its increasingly dynamic nature, coupled with the plethora of new user devices and applications render it difficult to foresee demand. To make the platform readily and dynamically available for a multitude of services, virtualization can be used to simplify the management and deployment of the RAN nodes. Virtualization can also be used to enhance the use of a single and integrated execution environment for RAN, core and applications providing the best in terms of execution proximity and high responsiveness of a certain service from network slice.
HSC is working on several services projects for Tier 1 OEMS in the network equipment manufacturing and test equipment manufacturing space. These services cater to solution architecture, implementation, and field support of C-RAN and V-RAN solutions. HSC has the requisite technical know-how in software frameworks, (eNodeB, EPC etc.), necessary resources, management framework and a strong delivery process to enable customer with their own C-RAN solution.
Want to implement a cRAN that can save on CAPEX and considerably decrease OPEX as compared to a traditional RAN solution? View HSC’s suite of Product engineering services for Wireless Networks and hire the best-in-class cRAN services provider.