A Transport Scheme for Reducing Delays and Jitter in Ethernet-Based 5G Fronthaul Networks

Fronthaul networks are leveraging communication links between the remote radio heads and baseband units in cloud radio access networks, and common public radio interface (CPRI) is an interface to carry time-sensitive traffic over the fronthaul. For the fronthaul networks which impose stringent bandwidth, latency, and jitter requirements, Ethernet can be a cost-effective solution to carry the CPRI traffic. However, Ethernet networks have limitations to transport the multiple CPRI streams simultaneously and satisfy the strict service requirements due to the accumulation of unavoidable intrinsic delays at switches. To address these issues, this paper evaluates the impact of intrinsic delay on the performance of CPRI over Ethernet (CoE) networks with experimental results and proposes a virtual local area network-based CoE network architecture along with two transport algorithms to carry the multiple CPRI streams over Ethernet despite the intrinsic delays. We confirmed with computer simulations that with the proposed techniques, the end-to-end delays and jitter for a number of CPRI streams within the acceptable range of fronthaul requirements can be achieved.