Service-based RAN: the next phase of cloud RAN

The convergence of information, communication and data technologies (ICDT) is one of the driving forces of the sixth generation (6G) network. As a typical application of ICDT convergence in the fifth generation (5G) network, the service-based architecture (SBA) has been effectively verified by its large-scale commercial deployment, and the problems are also being gradually solved. At present, the service-based concept has only been applied to the control plane (CP) of core network (CN), and its application on the user plane (UP) of CN is being studied in the industry. For 6G, the service-based radio access network (RAN) should also be put on the agenda to solve problems such as the complexity of interface design, and the long cycle of version upgrades. This paper firstly introduces the driving forces and design principles of service-based RAN. Then it proposes a possible service-based design together with technical advantages. The simulation result finally demonstrates the performance in terms of parallel processing.