Adaptive 5G Radio Access Strategies for Robust Wireless Fronthaul

The fronthaul connection is a key component of Centralized RAN (C-RAN) architectures, consistently required to handle high capacity demands. However, this critical feature is at risk when the transport link relies on wireless technology. In this paper, we present a solution to enhance the robustness of wireless fronthaul links by leveraging the cell capacity. Specifically, we study the fronthaul dimensioning, present dynamic reconfiguration strategies capable to sustain a cell in case of constrained fronthaul, and perform a conclusive experiment on a commercial testbed. The experiment provides original data on the fronthaul utilization, and demonstrates how dimensioning is strictly dependent from implementation choices. This affects the reconfiguration strategies and must be carefully evaluated in the C-RAN design.