Latency-Aware Fronthaul Network Design Using Power-over-Fiber

Next-generation 5G and beyond mobile networks demand fronthaul infrastructures that are not only high-capacity and low-latency but also cost-effective and energy-efficient. A promising solution is provided by Power-over-Fiber (PWoF) technology, which allows power and data to be transmitted simultaneously over optical fibers. In this work, we address the challenge of designing scalable, latency-aware fronthaul networks using PWoF. We introduce a new heuristic called Meta K-Means Clustering Boosting (MKMC), which improves initial solutions from current algorithms. Simulation results show that MKMC consistently outperforms previous methods in large-scale scenarios.