In addition to CPRI, new functional splits have been defined in 5G creating diverse fronthaul transport bandwidth and latency requirements. These fronthaul requirements shall be fulfilled simultaneously together with the backhaul requirements by an integrated fronthaul and backhaul transport solution. In this paper, we analyze the technical challenges to achieve an integrated transport solution in 5G and propose specific solutions to address these challenges. These solutions have been implemented and verified with pre-commercial equipment. Our results confirm that an integrated fronthaul and backhaul transport dubbed Crosshaul can meet all the requirements of 5G fronthaul and backhaul in a cost-efficient manner.

A 5G network provides several service types, tailored to specific needs such as high bandwidth or low latency. On top of these communication services, verticals are enabled to deploy their own vertical services. These vertical service instances compete for the resources of the underlying common infrastructure. We present a resource arbitration approach that allows to handle such resource conflicts on a high level and to provide guidance to lower-level orchestration components.

The evolution of LTE and advent of 5G networks increases further the bandwidth requirements for RAN. In parallel, the deployment of Centralized RAN architecture raises new challenges on the FrontHaul network. The inflexibility of the legacy CPRI is the primary challenge to Virtualized RAN deployments, and there is currently a strong trend towards the use of packetized transport methods, together with flexible split RAN based architectures. Functional splits within the real-time functions of the RAN have very stringent requirements on latency and jitter. This paper analyzes the jitter produced in the switching nodes of the FrontHaul network, and proposes dimensioning rules.

Abstract Prior to testing embedded software in a target environment, it is usually tested in a host environment used for developing the software. When a system is tested in a host environment, its real‐time behaviour is affected by the use of simulators, emulation and monitoring. In this paper, the authors provide a semantics for host‐based testing with simulated time and propose a simulated‐time solution for distributed testing with TTCN‐3, which is a standardized language for specifying and executing test suites. The paper also presents the application of testing with simulated time to two real‐life systems. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.