Back to the Drawing Board Building the RAN from the Ground Up

John Baker SVP Business Development

Mavenir

January 23, 2018

@PTCouncil #PTC18

Disruptive Challenges

2

Bits/sec/hertz/$ - New Business Models

Virtualization - All Elements Virtualized except the Radio

Low Latency – Micro services at Network Edge

Open Interfaces – Front haul and Networking

Low cost RRUs - Massive Densification

Spectral efficiency – Massive MIMO

@PTCouncil #PTC18

What is Cloud RAN

3

Macro site

EPC

RRU

Mobile backhaulRRU

BBU

Macro site

EPCMobile backhaul

5-15km

BBU

BBU

C-RAN

Fronthaul

C-RAN hub

Classical/Distributed RAN

Centralized RAN

Macro site

Cloud RAN

BBU

Mobile Fronthaul

0 - 200km

Mobile data center

RRU

BBUEPC

1

2

3

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Network Evolution

4

3GPP

AAA

SGW PGW

MME

PCRF

SGSN

HSS

eNodeB

Today

Remote Radio Heads

Internet

Tomorrow

Scales up and down It is Software

Virtual servers running multiple Network Virtual Function and applications

Including Cloud Ran

Difficult to Scale DownBuilt for large capacities

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What is Cloud RAN – Open interfaces

5

BBU

L3 L2 L1

CP

RI

CP

RI

DSP

DA

C

AD

C Po

we

r A

mp

lifi

er

Fre

qu

en

cy F

ilte

r

RRU

I/Q DL

I/Q UL

Proprietary

L3 L2 L1 NIC

NIC DSP

DA

C

AD

C Po

we

r A

mp

lifi

er

Fre

qu

en

cy F

ilte

r

RRU

RFoE DL

RFoE UL

L1

vBBU

Open

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xRAN.org

6

• Carrier driven industry effort

• Develop, standardize and promote

xRAN architecture

• Alternative to traditionally closed, hardware-based RAN

• Fronthaul WG - May 2017

http://www.xran.org/members/

Operator Members Contributing Members

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Objectives

• Minimize impact on transport bandwidth while maximizing virtualization in CU

• Enable simple, low cost DU designs for wide adoption among DU vendors with OAM

• No performance loss compared to integrated solutions with ideal fronthaul

• No limitation on receiver architecture for performance

• No re-design for NR vs. LTE

• Not a fixed rate streaming interface –transport data rate scales with traffic and bandwidth

An Open Specification

7

@PTCouncil #PTC18

5G new radio (NSA-NR) is anchored in LTE! Standalone (SA) NR will interwork tightly with LTE as well

8

The shortcut to rapid “5G” deployments as soon as next year

LTE/LTE Advanced and beyond

5G NSA-NR

6GHz

Existing spectrum

New spectrum

5G SA-NR

5G Radio

400MHz 6GHz

400MHz 100GHz

Source: IHS Markit Mobile Infrastructure Intelligence, © 2017 IHS Markit

5G radio will stay in the LTE domain to use OFDM waveform, TDD at high frequencies (above 3 GHz), and mainly FDD in lower frequencies. It must support:

• A wide range of frequencies, bandwidths, and deployment options

• Applications with very low latency, which requires very short subframes

• Access and backhaul links by dynamically sharing the spectrum

• Multi-antenna technology such as single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO), multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO), and massive MIMO

@PTCouncil #PTC18

AT&T’s 5G FWA rollout roadmap starts with NSA NR

9

2018 2020 2022

28–39GHz

Source: 3GPP, AT&T, April 20, 2017. IHS Markit Mobile Infrastructure Intelligence Service.

Step 1:Early 5G deployment using LTE/EPC

Step 2:Upgrade to Next Gen Core

Step 3:Widespread 5G Deployment

(coverage in sub 6GHz)

Option 3X Option 7X Option 4

NR

NRLTE

EPC

UE

LTE NR

NRUE

LTE

NG Core

UE

LTE

LTE LTE NR

NR

NG Core

The shortcut to rapid “5G” deployments as soon as next year

@PTCouncil #PTC18

Why Massive MIMO – System Capacity Gain

10

Capacity

Requirements

Most macro

networks will

become congested

Spectrum <3GHz and

eNB sires will run out

of capacity

Coverage

Requirements

<6GHz LTE

deployments

optimized for lower

frequencies

>6GHz large

bandwidths poor path

loss conditions

Technology

Capability

Active Antennas

becoming

technically and

commercially

feasible

Massive MIMO

Requires Active

Antennas

Digital Input

3GPP

LTE: Rel -13/14

NR: Rel-15

New Radio

“Beam based” air

interface

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Network Use ProfilesEurope aggregated network traffic profile

11

Day night traffic profile for office and residential area

Source: NGNM Further Study on Critical Cloud Ran Technologies

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Cloud RAN Evolution

12

Central Data Center

Local Data Center

RRH

600-2GHz4x4 MIMO 200 Mbps

LTE vRAN

5G User PlaneBBU

RRH

3 – 80 GHZ Massive MIMO Gbps

5G Broadband

Antenna Array

5G User Plane3/4/5G BBU

RRH

600 – 80 GHZ Massive MIMO Mbps/Gbps

3G/4G/IoT/5G

Antenna Array

5G Core Separate User and control planes

4/5G Core, Separate User and control planes

LTE Core & applications

BBU

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vEPC Architectural Approach

13

Disaggregated, function-based, and cloudified mobile network

Signaling ContextForwarding

ComputeStorage Network

Map Mobile Workloads to Cloud

Resources

Eliminate Constraints of Physical Boundaries

PGWSGW HSSMME

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Latency - Major architecture redesign for 5G

Front haul transmission

• Optical Fiber

• Timing and Synchronization

Edge Computing

• Multi-access Edge Computing

• Network Slicing

Control and User Plan

Separation – CUPS

14

“Data Centers at the cell site”

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5G Core Cloudification

15

Cell SiteEnterprise “Whitebox” Internet Mid Haul Core

BBU

vEPC vIMSNIC

Mavenir Core

VM VM VM

BBU

vEPC

NIC

Mavenir Mid Haul

VM VM

BB

U

vE

PC

NIC

Mavenir Edge

VM VM

SmallLow Latency <2ms

MediumLatency <10ms

LargeHigh Latency

Enabling use cases like #Distributed Data Centers , MEC etc

@PTCouncil #PTC18

Network at the Edge – Simplify Micro Services

16

Internet

BBU

vEPC vIMSNIC

VM VM VM

BB

U

vE

PC

NIC

VM VM

MEC Controller

MEC Edge

MEC Micro services

Internet

@PTCouncil #PTC18

“Build your own network”

• Zero Touch white box deployments

• Enterprise is covered with its own network

• One deployment can handle all carriers (local and international through Roaming agreements)

• Integrated with existing DAS (if available)

• All functionality on compute platform in data centre

17

ENTERPRISE

Cloud RAN

Virtual Network Functions and Enterprise

Application

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Compelling need for Cloud RAN

• Increase the percentage of sharing decreases the relative cost

• Transmission is most sensitive element in model

• RAN virtualization showing significant cost and resource benefits

49% capex savings, 31% annual opex

savings

• Network Upgrades through SW upgrades 4G to 5G

18Source: Mavenir/SenzaFili TCO model Sep2017

49%Capex

Savings

31%Opex

Savings

DRAN Capex Cloud RANCapex

DRAN Opex Cloud RAN Opex

Installation

Site acquisition, network planning

BH and FH equipment

Equipment (BBU, RRU, SCGW)

Backhaul and fronthaul

Operations, maintenance, power

Site lease“Throw away the legacy network and start again”

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Thank you.

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