This article proposes and examines a solution in which the base-station for the fifth generation radio access network is simplified by using a single millimeter-wave oscillator in the central-station and distributing its millimeter-wave signal to the base-stations. The system is designed in such a way that the low-phase-noise signal generated by an opto-electronic oscillator is transmitted from the central-station to multiple base-stations via a passive optical network infrastructure. A novel flexible approach with a single-loop opto-electronic oscillator at the transmitting end and a tunable dispersion-compensation module at the receiving end(s) is proposed to distribute a power-penalty-free millimeter-wave signal in the radio access network. Power-penalty-free signal transmission from 10 MHz up to 45 GHz with an optical length of 20 km is achieved by a combination of a tunable dispersion-compensation module and an optical delay line. In addition, measurements with a fixed modulation frequency of 39 GHz and discretely incrementing optical fiber lengths from 0.625 km to 20 km are shown. Finally, a preliminary idea for an automatically controlled feedback-loop tuning system is proposed as a further research entry point.

Packet-switched xHaul networks are a scalable solution enabling convergent transport of diverse types of radio data flows, such as fronthaul / midhaul / backhaul (FH / MH / BH) flows, between remote sites and a central site (hub) in 5G radio access networks (RANs). Such networks can be realized using the cost-efficient Ethernet technology, which enhanced with time-sensitive networking (TSN) features allows for prioritized transmission of latency-sensitive fronthaul flows. Provisioning of multiple types of 5G services of different service requirements in a shared network, commonly referred to as network slicing, requires adequate handling of transported data flows in order to satisfy particular service / slice requirements. In this work, we investigate two traffic prioritization policies, namely, flowaware (FA) and latency-aware (LA), in a packet-switched xHaul network supporting slices of different latency requirements. We evaluate the effectiveness of the policies in a networkplanning case study, where virtualized radio processing resources allocated at the processing pool (PP) facilities, for two slices related to enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) services, are subject to optimization. Using numerical experiments, we analyze PP cost savings from applying the LA policy (vs. FA) in various network scenarios. The savings in active PPs reach up to 40% − 60% in ring scenarios and 30% in a mesh network, whereas the gains in overall PP cost are up to 20% for the cost values assumed in the analysis.

IP scheduled throughput defined according to 3GPP TS 36.314 reflects user throughput regardless of traffic characteristics, and therefore has become one of the most important indicators for monitoring Quality of Service (QoS) of the end user in Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). However, networks built on a distributed architecture make the above definition impossible to be applied directly due to the implementation challenges. This paper gives an overview of the classical Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture as opposed to Dual Connectivity (DC) topology and focuses on a novel method of solving the calculation issue with the IP scheduled throughput measurement in edge computing environment. Experimental results show a good agreement with the real end user perception.