Digital signal processing for high-speed fiber-wireless convergence [invited]

We review recent advances in the field of fiber-wireless convergence to better support cloud radio access networks via high-speed low-latency mobile fronthaul between remote radio units and baseband units. We also present how digital signal processing (DSP) may be used to support both common public radio interfaces (CPRI) in a point-to-point architecture and Ethernet-based CPRI in a point-to-multipoint architecture to achieve high bandwidth efficiency and low processing latency. The use of DSP-enabled next-generation passive optical networks (PON), such as 50 Gb/s PON, to support mobile fronthaul in a resource-efficient manner will also be discussed.