Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Network and Computer Applications

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jnca

Review

Recent research in cloud radio access network (C-RAN) for 5G cellular

systems - A survey
Md. Farhad Hossain ∗ , Ayman Uddin Mahin, Topojit Debnath, Farjana Binte Mosharrof,
Khondoker Ziaul Islam
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Index Terms: Traditional architectures of cellular networks are facing tremendous challenges due to unprecedented increase
C-RAN architectures in mobile data traffic, limited spectrum availability and high power consumption. In light of this, industries as
Throughput
well as research communities are in constant search for fundamental breakthroughs in developing novel network
Interference management
architectures for supporting the exploding user demand, while reducing capital and operational expenditures for
Energy efficiency
Latency
network operators. Cloud radio access network (C-RAN) architecture is such a paradigm shifting concept for cel-
Security lular networks, which is also being actively considered as a major candidate for future 5G cellular systems. This
System cost paper presents a comprehensive survey on the most recent advances in C-RAN research focusing on the analysis
5G cellular networks and enhancement of its various major aspects. In particular, after reviewing the works on C-RAN architectures,
we then focus on the papers published specifically on the throughput enhancement, interference management,
energy efficiency, latency, security and system cost reduction of C-RAN based cellular networks. A summary of
the open issues and future research directions in these areas of C-RAN based cellular networks is also presented.

1. Introduction
In recent years, the world has seen a massive surge in mobile sub-
scriptions and a corresponding explosion in data traffic (Jonsson et
al., 2017; Statista, 2019). One of the studies found that the number
of unique mobile subscribers in the world have surged from 4.5 bil-
lion in 2013 to 5.4 billion in 2017 and can reach to 6.2 billion by
the end of 2023 (Jonsson et al., 2017). The driving factors behind this
unprecedented rise in global penetration of mobile devices include an
increasing trend in accepting the concept of sustainable development
through digital revolution by the state policymakers, a global accel-
eration in the deployment of fourth generation (4G) long-term evolu-
tion (LTE) cellular systems, introduction of affordable smart devices
with improved capabilities (e.g., smartphones and tablets), diverse user
friendly applications and an increase in data-intensive contents. Intro-
duction of fifth generation (5G) cellular systems as expected to be in
2019 and more data intensive applications including virtual reality and
augmented reality technologies will even make mobile devices much
more popular in the upcoming days. Correspondingly, the forecast in
(Jonsson et al., 2017) suggests that the total global mobile data traffic
per month can surge from current 13.8 ExaBytes (EB) in 2017 to 110 EB
by the end of 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42%
as shown in Fig. 1.
Supporting such a massive volume of mobile data traffic is going to
be a tremendous challenge for the network operators in the upcoming
days. The essence is that mobile network capacity must be increased
to meet the demand. Network capacity can be increased in several
ways including by adding more cells to the network, implementing
heterogeneous networks (HetNets) introducing small cells, using beam-
forming (BF), integrating relays and repeaters, adopting distributed
antenna system (DAS) and cognitive radio (CR), and using techniques
like multi-user multiple input multiple output (MIMO) and massive
MIMO (Hwang et al., 2013; Larsson et al., 2014; Checko et al., 2015;
The Benefits of Cloud-RAN, 2014; Wu et al., 2015). The major draw-
backs of these technologies are higher inter-cell interference, complex
network operations and maintenance, increased energy consumption
and reduced profit margin for the operators due to increase in capital
expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX) (Checko et
al., 2015; The Benefits of Cloud-RAN, 2014). Apart from the increase
in network capacity, future 5G networks must also support enormous

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: mfarhadhossain@eee.buet.ac.bd (Md.F. Hossain), aumahin125@gmail.com (A.U. Mahin), topojit.107@gmail.com (T. Debnath),
bipashafarjana@gmail.com (F.B. Mosharrof), ziaiut@gmail.com (K.Z. Islam).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2019.04.019
Received 22 June 2018; Received in revised form 23 January 2019; Accepted 23 April 2019
Available online 7 May 2019
1084-8045/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Md.F. Hossain et al.
Fig. 1. A forecast of global mobile data traffic in EB per month up to 2023
(Jonsson et al., 2017).
number of connected devices (tens of thousands per macrocell), high
data rate (∼ tens of Gbps), enhanced spectral efficiency (SE), improved
energy efficiency (EE), robust reliability (∼ 99.999%), almost ‘anytime
anywhere’ connectivity and extremely low latency (∼1 ms) for data
intensive, mission critical and time critical applications (Agiwal et al.,
2016; Peng et al., 2015a; Andrews et al., 2014; Sofi and Gupta, 2018).
Current technologies are clearly in lack for supporting such crucial
requirements. Therefore, the industries and researchers need to bring
some fundamental changes in future networks both in technologies and
architectures.
Cloud radio access network (C-RAN) based cellular networks, a
strong contender for future 5G cellular systems, has all the potential
for meeting the above requirements (Wu et al., 2015; Peng et al., 2016;
Tian et al., 2017). It is a paradigm shifting evolutionary concept, first
time outlined by IBM in (Lin et al., 2010), proposing the architecture
and operations of cellular networks in such a way which is completely
different from the current systems. In C-RAN, baseband units (BBUs)
of all base stations (BSs) in a RAN is centralized forming a virtualized
BBU pool, which is then shared among the BSs (Checko et al., 2015;
Tian et al., 2017; Lin et al., 2010). Due to the inherent advantages of
C-RAN over the traditional RANs as discussed in Section 2, an intensive
research initiative on identifying the potentials, challenges and solu-
tions of open issues in C-RAN is underway as evident from the large
number of emerging articles.
In this paper, we aim to present a comprehensive survey on the
recent works in the filed of C-RAN. Previous surveys mainly focused
on a particular area of C-RAN. For instance, authors in (I et al., 2014)
summarized the works on the centralization and virtualization for C-
RANs. By introducing the concept and architectures of C-RAN, require-
ment of higher capacity in the fronthaul, virtualization techniques for
the BBU pool, hardware implementations and challenges were dis-
cussed in (Checko et al., 2015). On the other hand, recent develop-
ments in resource allocation for heterogeneous C-RAN (H-CRAN) were
surveyed and investigated in (Dahrouj et al., 2015). This paper also
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Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48
proposed and investigated coordinated scheduling, hybrid backhaul-
ing and multi-cloud association based three different resource alloca-
tion schemes. Moreover, a survey of the recent works on the archi-
tectures, key technologies and open issues in C-RANs was presented
in (Peng et al., 2016). This paper discussed the key technologies by
dividing them into four different sections, namely, fronthaul compres-
sion, large-scale collaborative processing, channel estimation and coop-
erative radio resource allocation. Furthermore, a survey on the works
on C-RAN security was presented in (Tian et al., 2017). Various secu-
rity threats and vulnerabilities of C-RAN were identified and analyzed
following a comprehensive review of the existing literature studies.
This paper also introduced the solutions to security threats in differ-
ent logic layers of C-RAN and discussed their relative advantages and
drawbacks.
Instead of focusing on a specific issue, our paper presents a survey
covering several aspects of C-RAN based cellular networks such that
a reader can immediately have a basic, but a complete picture of the
state-of-the-art research directions of C-RAN by dividing them into sev-
eral distinguished sections. Rest of the paper is organized as follows.
Section 2 presents the concepts of C-RAN including a summary of the
advantages and disadvantages of this technology. A comprehensive sur-
vey on the proposed architectures for C-RAN is presented in Section
3. Research works on the throughput improvement are discussed in
Section 4, whereas a summary of the works on interference manage-
ment techniques for C-RAN based cellular networks is presented in
Section 5. Then the works on the improvement of EE are presented
in Section 6 following the works related to delay, security and system
cost minimization in Section 7, 8 and 9 respectively.
A summary of the open issues, challenges and future research direc-
tions is also included in Section 10. Finally, the paper is concluded with
a brief summary in Section 11.
2. Cloud radio access network
C-RAN refers to a cellular network architecture where baseband and
higher-layer functions of BSs are performed in a cloud. A C-RAN archi-
tecture basically has three components - a BBU pool consisting of a
many BBUs with centralized processors, remote radio heads (RRHs)
with antennas and a fronthaul network connecting RRHs with the BBU
pool (Checko et al., 2015; Peng et al., 2015a; Tian et al., 2017; Lin et
al., 2010; Simeone et al., 2016; Hossain and Hasan, 2015). A general
architecture of C-RAN based cellular network is shown in Fig. 2.
In C-RAN, traditional BSs are decoupled into two parts - distributed
RRHs and BBUs clustered into a pool. The pool is placed at a cen-
tralized site (i.e., cloud) having a set of BBUs. That means that the
radio resources of different BBUs can be shared to meet the dynamic
user demand having tempo-spatial variation. The cloud controls the
RRHs and is also reconfigurable, i.e., number of BBUs can be changed
with time. The cloud functions as virtual BSs performing baseband pro-
cessing with the help of general purpose processors. Signal processing
resources in the cloud are dynamically allocated on demand basis. Vari-
ous functions including modulation, coding, fast fourier transform, and
selection of suitable frequency or channel are performed in the cloud.
On the other hand, RRHs equipped with antennas transmit radio sig-
nals from the BBU cloud to the users in the downlink and forward the
baseband signals from users to the cloud for processing. Main func-
tions of RRHs includes radio frequency (RF) amplification, up/down
conversion, filtering, digital processing, analog-to-digital conversion,
digital-to-analog conversion and interface adaptation. As most of the
signal processing functions are performed in cloud, RRHs can relatively
be simple and distributed in a large scale scenario in a cost efficient
manner. The third component, fronthaul provides the communication
links between BBUs and RRHs. Various technologies, such as optical
fiber communication, standard wireless communication, or even mil-
limeter wave (mmWave) communication can be used for implementing
this fronthaul links (Peng et al., 2015a). Optical fiber communication
Md.F. Hossain et al.
Fig. 2. A general architecture of C-RAN based cellular networks.
fronthaul has the capability to support high transmission capacity at
the expense of high cost and inflexible deployment. Whereas, wireless
fronthaul employing wireless communications with 5 GHz–40 GHz car-
rier frequencies are cheaper and more flexible at the cost of reduced
capacity and other constraints.
2.1. Benefits of C-RAN
C-RAN has some great advantages over the existing counterpart as
summarized below (Checko et al., 2015; The Benefits of Cloud-RAN,
2014; Wu et al., 2015; Peng et al., 2016; Simeone et al., 2016; Hos-
sain and Hasan, 2015; Meerja et al., 2015a; Panwar et al., 2016;
Suryaprakash et al., 2015a; Barbarossa et al., 2014; Rost et al., 2014;
Cai et al., 2014a; ZTE Green Technology Innovations, 2011; Hossain et
al., 2013).
• Reduced CAPEX and OPEX: Deployment and commissioning of a
macrocell BS (MBS) is expensive and time-consuming. In contrast, C-
RAN involves less cost, space and time to deploy, install, and operate
RRHs (Wu et al., 2015). Furthermore, C-RAN can make it possible
to more effectively equipment sharing leading to reduced CAPEX.
A quantitative analysis presented in (Suryaprakash et al., 2015a)
showed that CRANs has the potential to reduce CAPEX up to 15%
per kilometer. Besides, computating resources in C-RAN are aggre-
gated in few big clouds leaving simpler functions in RRHs, which
can save a large portion of OPEX and management cost (Wu et al.,
2015; Hossain and Hasan, 2015).
• Improved EE: Number of BBUs required in a C-RAN is less than a con-
ventional RAN leading to reduction in power consumption (Alhu-
maima et al., 2016; Bassoli et al., 2017). Besides, air conditioning
of radio modules in C-RANs can be decreased around 90% as RRHs
are naturally cooled by air hanging on masts or building walls (Alhu-
maima et al., 2016). Furthermore, C-RANs allow both UEs and MBSs
to offload their data intensive energy-consuming computations to
a nearby cloud saving their energy (Barbarossa et al., 2014). One
study conducted by ZTE estimated that C-RAN can achieve up to
80% energy savings compared to traditional RAN (ZTE Green Tech-
nology Innovations, 2011).
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Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48
• Improved spectral efficiency (SE): C-RAN can also improve the SE
of cellular networks. For instance, implementation of coordinated
and cooperative transmission/reception strategies, such as enhanced
inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) and coordinated multi-
point transmission (CoMP) across the RRHs connected to the same
cloud will be much simpler and more effective resulting in higher
SE (Checko et al., 2015; Simeone et al., 2016).
• Reduced latency: C-RAN has the capability to reduce latency in
performing various operations. For instance, the time needed to
perform handovers will be reduced as it can be done inside a
cloud instead of between BSs. Failure rate in handover can also be
decreased. Moreover, the general amount of signaling information
sent to core network can be reduced in C-RAN and hence latency
will be reduced.
• Facilitate the switching of BBUs: C-RAN relaxes the constraint of keep-
ing each BS on for all time. As all processing functionalities are
implemented in a remote cloud, power consumption and load con-
gestion can be reduced by dynamically allocating processing capa-
bility and migrating tasks in the BBU pool. Thus several BBUs can
be turned to low power sleep mode or even be shut down for saving
energy (Wu et al., 2015).
• Improved interference management: C-RAN enables ease sharing of
channel state information (CSI), traffic data and control informa-
tion of mobile services among cooperating BSs. This will allow
more effective multipoint cooperation and enable multiplexing more
streams on the same channel with substantially reduced mutual
interference (Wu et al., 2015). Due to the decrease of interference,
link quality as well as throughput will be greatly improved.
• Ease of maintenance and expansion: The inherent centralized archi-
tecture of C-RAN makes it easily scalable and thus simplifies the cel-
lular network upgrading and maintenance. For example, a network
operator only needs to add new RRHs connecting with the cloud for
covering more service areas or split the cell for higher capacity (Wu
et al., 2015; Peng et al., 2016). C-RAN also facilitates on demand
installation of virtual resources in cloud (Rost et al., 2014; Cai et
al., 2014a). Besides, C-RAN provides a smooth way for introducing
new standards, as hardware needs to be placed in few centralized
locations. Moreover, centralization of BBUs in cloud enables easy
and more frequent CPU updates than that in the traditional systems.
Furthermore, the native centralized support for multi-standard oper-
ation will make inter-RAN operation relatively easy (Checko et al.,
2015).
• Adaptability to non-uniform traffic: Modern day cellular networks
exhibit a substantial amount of tempo-spatial diversity in traffic.
However, BSs are dimensioned for busy hours implying a wastage
of processing power during off-peak hours (Hossain et al., 2013).
Since in C-RAN, baseband processing of multiple BSs is carried out
in the centralized BBU pool, resources to the BSs can be allocated
in an optimum way based on the instantaneous traffic demand and
thus the overall resource utilization rate can be improved.
2.2. Drawbacks of C-RAN
C-RAN has also some drawbacks, which need to be addressed before
implementing C-RAN based cellular networks. For instance, security
and trust problem of C-RAN is one of the major problems, which has
drawn special concern. In a wireless network, due to its open broadcast
nature, a user either authorized or illegitimate, can access it. In addi-
tion to common security threats of conventional wireless networks, such
as primary user emulation attack (PUEA) and spectrum sensing data
falsification (SSDF) attack, due to its transmission and self-deploying
nature, C-RAN will face more serious security threats and trust prob-
lems (Tian et al., 2017). Furthermore, as the BBUs of many BSs are
bundled together in the cloud, C-RAN has the huge risk of single-point
failure, i.e., if the cloud fails, the entire network will be out of oper-
Md.F. Hossain et al.
ation. On the other hand, C-RAN architecture brings a huge overhead
on the optical fronthaul links between RRHs and cloud, which can be
as high as 50 times compared to the backhaul requirements (Checko et
al., 2015). In addition, latency/jitter between cloud and RRHs, complex
BS operations in cloud and risk of losing the compatibility of the native
hardware are some of the major drawbacks of C-RAN (Meerja et al.,
2015a). There is also a potential to increase latency in some cases due
to centralized signal processing (Peng et al., 2016).
3. Research on C-RAN architectures
As stated earlier and also demonstrated in Fig. 2, the generic C-RAN
system separates the BBU from a traditional BS and then the BBUs of
many BSs are bundled together into a cloud such that the pool can be
shared among many RRHs. Since the inception of C-RAN concept, sev-
eral works from both the industries and academia, have been published
on its architectural design such that it can meet the demand of users
as well as of the operators of future cellular networks (Wu et al., 2015;
Peng et al., 2015a; Dahrouj et al., 2015; Boviz et al., 2017; Nanba et
al., 2016; C-RAN, 2011; Park et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2017a; Cai et
al., 2014b; Meerja et al., 2015b; Miyanabe et al., 2015; Nikaein, 2015;
Sundaresan et al., 2016; Liu et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2017b; Kolawole
et al., 2017; Zhan and Niyato, 2017; Chen et al., 2017).
3.1. Generic C-RAN
Depending on the different functional splitting between BBU cloud
and RRHs, China Mobile classified the C-RAN architectures into two
categories - fully centralized and partially centralized (C-RAN, 2011).
Whereas, based on the fronthaul constraints and the functional splitting
between BBUs and RRHs, authors in (Peng et al., 2015a) extended this
classification into three categories - fully centralized, partially central-
ized and hybrid. In fully centralized case, functions of Layer 1, Layer
2 and Layer 3 of the conventional BSs are moved into the BBU cloud.
The BBU cloud performs all processing and managing functions of the
traditional BSs. Although this architecture is clear, simple and have
significant benefits in terms of operation and maintenance, burden on
the fronthaul is substantial. On the other hand, in partially centralized
C-RAN architecture, a RRH performs the RF functions as well as some
strictly RF related baseband processing functions. Rest of the Layer 1
functions and the functions of upper layers are executed in the cloud.
Consequently, constraints on fronthaul are mitigated due to the substan-
tial reduction of RRH-BBU overhead. However, the interaction between
Layer 1 and 2 can be complex and consequently, coordinated and coop-
erative processing required for advanced techniques (e.g., CoMP, mas-
sive MIMO) can be less efficient. The third option, a special case of fully
centralized option, hybrid centralized architecture moves some func-
tions of Layer 1 from BBU cloud and assigns them into a new separated
processing unit, which can be a part of the cloud. This option facilitates
the flexible resource sharing and reduces energy consumption in the
cloud.
Recently, a quantitative techno-economic analysis on deciding the
optimal functional split in C-RAN having minimum total cost of own-
ership (TCO) was investigated in (Wang et al., 2017b). To do so, this
paper proposes a hybrid C-RAN (H-RAN) architecture in which the func-
tional split of a baseband processing chain of a BS is modeled consisting
of three sub-models - a sequence of processing functions (PFs), func-
tional split complexity model and functional split bandwidth model.
Then a model for evaluating the TCO for the H-RAN as a function of
fronthaul bandwidth requirement and computational resources placed
at remote site is also proposed and numerical studies are conducted. It
is demonstrated that the proposed H-RAN with optimal functional split
can achieve lower TCO than both the generic fully centralized C-RAN
and traditional distributed RAN models.
A service-oriented C-RAN architecture with a novel logical structure
was proposed in (Wu et al., 2015). Proposed logical structure consists
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Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48
of a physical plane, a control plane and a service plane with the aim to
serve both users and operators with better network performance. The
physical plane mainly handles virtualization for resource provisioning,
baseband pool interconnection topology and signal processing, such
as channel decoding, demultiplexing, and fast fourier transform (FFT).
The control plane consisting of resource management module (RMM)
and service maintenance module (SMM) functions based on the under-
lying physical plane, and supports the service plane. It also enables
situation-aware and application aware RAN reconfiguration and RAN
selection. On the other hand, the service plane is a platform where
fixed and mobile services are provided. Application delivery, mobil-
ity management, enabling multimedia applications, network manage-
ment and security are some of the major services provided by this
plane.
Another novel C-RAN architecture named as convergence of cloud
and cellular systems (CONCERT) was proposed in (Liu et al., 2014).
This architecture proposes three distinguished planes data, control and
software-defined service planes. The data plane contains heterogeneous
physical resources and performs basic signal processing tasks. Whereas,
the control plane, a logically centralized entity, performs several func-
tions including radio interface management, wired networking manage-
ment and location-aware computing management. On the other hand,
software-defined services layer works as a virtual BS and provides var-
ious services to the data layer. The services provided by this layer are
quite similar to those of the service plane proposed in the architecture
of (Wu et al., 2015).
On the other hand, a scalable and light-weight C-RAN architec-
ture, named as FluidNet, with a novel logically reconfigurable and flex-
ible fronthaul between BBUs and RRHs was proposed in (Sundare-
san et al., 2016). The objective of the new architecture is to sup-
port maximum traffic while minimizing the required amount of com-
puting resources used in the BBU pool with a consideration of the
tempo-spatial traffic diversity. Motivation for a re-configurable fron-
thaul was achieved through the conducted experiment on a WiMAX C-
RAN testbed. FluidNet proposes an intelligent controller to be housed in
the BBU pool, which dynamically re-configures the fronthaul based on
network feedback to cater effectively both heterogeneous user and traf-
fic profiles. It is also shown that FluidNet achieves 50% improvement
in satisfying traffic demands as well as reduces 50% of the computing
resource usage in the BBU pool compared to the baseline schemes.
Authors of (Miyanabe et al., 2015) proposed a passive optical net-
works (PONs) based C-RAN architecture with power over fiber (PoF)
to have the advantages of low installation cost and removal of external
power supply for RRHs. The network model is divided into three parts
- a central office (CO), i.e., the cloud, an optical line terminal (OLT)
and the RRHs. As per the proposal, an optical splitter is used to serve
multiple RRHs over just a single optical fiber cable, whereas the OLT
is used to aggregate multiple RRHs to supply them power through the
optical fiber cable. The CO controls the overall operation of the net-
work including the management of wireless and optical links, controls
of RRHs, resource management, transmit power control from the OLT
to the RRHs and other tasks involving MIMO, CoMP and handover. This
paper also presents the design and operation methodologies of the pro-
posed C-RAN for assuring expected quality of experience (QoE). Desired
QoE levels are outlined by proposing three different QoE assurance
models. The proposed methodology decides the number of required
RRHs and OLTs in a given area to meet the desired QoE. In addition, a
joint control method of RRH sleep and transmission power of OLTs for
reducing the transmission power without sacrificing the individual QoE
is also investigated.
3.2. Heterogeneous C-RAN
Being motivated from the major inherent advantages of hetero-
geneous networks than the conventional networks, several works in
(Dahrouj et al., 2015; Meerja et al., 2015b; Chen et al., 2017) proposed
Md.F. Hossain et al.
Fig. 3. A typical architecture of H-CRAN (Chen et al., 2017).
architectures for heterogeneous C-RAN (H-CRAN) which combines both
BS densification and centralized processing. A typical H-CRAN system
model is shown in Fig. 3. H-CRAN has the potential to achieve efficient
resource sharing among different entities feasible through the cloud
by means of jointly encoding (decoding) the messages using downlink
(uplink) coordinated resource allocation techniques (e.g., BF, power
control, BS association and scheduling) (Dahrouj et al., 2015; Meerja
et al., 2015b). Authors in (Dahrouj et al., 2015) proposed two differ-
ent architectures for H-CRAN involving diverse cell size. The first one
includes a single cloud connected to the BSs from different tiers using
either optical or wireless backhaul links, while the second one pro-
poses multiple clouds connecting each of them to a set of BSs through
hybrid backhauling. Whereas, a novel H-CRAN architecture by inte-
grating massive MIMO for enabling broadband transmission was pro-
posed in (Chen et al., 2017). Proposed H-CRAN divided the complete
operation into three distinct logical layers, namely, infrastructure layer,
control layer and application layer. Overall, the BBU cloud is responsi-
ble for integrating the large amount of spatial domain information and
performing null-space calculation for the implementation of massive
MIMO. After processing the null-space information in the BBU pool, it
is sent back to the access points for proper coordination across the entire
network for extracting enhanced performance. Proposed H-CRAN tech-
nology enhances the scalability and flexibility of the system. Further-
more, RRHs become even more simpler as the complex computations
are managed by the BBU pool and realized by massive MIMO.
3.3. Enhanced C-RAN
Extensive research is being conducted on enhancing the general
C-RAN architecture by integrating advanced techniques, such as BF
(Wang et al., 2017a), multi-user MIMO (Boviz et al., 2017), massive
MIMO (Chen et al., 2017), NOMA (Boviz et al., 2017), mmWave com-
munications (Kolawole et al., 2017), clustering (Park et al., 2017) and
coalition formation (Zhan and Niyato, 2017). In (Wang et al., 2017a),
authors proposed a C-RAN architecture involving utility-based cooper-
ative BF. The backhaul link is proposed to be of optical fiber, and signal
processing and resource allocation are executed in a centralized man-
ner. To model the utility of a user, a sigmoidal function of the SINR
is used considering real time applications. A non-convex problem for
utility maximization is formulated, which is then solved by introducing
a maximum interference constraint, employing convex relaxation and
exploiting the sum-of-ratios form of the objective function. Maximiza-
tion of the aggregate utility of the users are performed under imperfect
CSI, limited backhaul capacity and QoS requirements. It is found that
the aggregate utility of the proposed C-RAN increases almost linearly
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Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48
for less number of users and becomes sub-linear for large number of
users. Moreover, an inversely proportional behavior of the aggregate
utility with the normalized maximum channel estimation error is iden-
tified.
Whereas authors in (Kolawole et al., 2017) proposed a C-RAN sys-
tem having a multi-user downlink with mmWave. In this architecture,
the fronthaul and the access link transmissions are implemented with
mmWave frequency bands. A stochastic geometry based network model
is considered, where RRHs are distributed randomly following indepen-
dent homogeneous poisson point process (PPP). It is found that larger
antenna arrays are shown to compensate for outage and latency perfor-
mance degradation with higher RRH deployment, which can be consid-
ered as a tradeoff between inter-cluster interference and RRH density.
Besides, authors of (Boviz et al., 2017) investigated a C-RAN scheme
integrating both multi-user MIMO and NOMA. This paper proposes an
end-to-end uplink transmission scheme, which is capable to deal with
implementation and deployment constraints on both the UE-RRH and
fronthaul interfaces in an efficient way. The system model also consid-
ers several user groups assuming that the system architecture allows
for all the users to centralize the user-specific physical layer functions
enabling to perform multi-cell multi-user joint detection (JD) on the
uplink when NOMA is applied. Furthermore, a partial NOMA scheme is
also proposed and found its capability to achieve high throughput with
reduced computational complexity and delay.
On the other hand, a mutually interfering multi-cluster based C-
RAN architecture was proposed in (Park et al., 2017). The motiva-
tion behind the proposal of smaller size multiple clusters of RRHs
is to reduce the cost though it can reduce SE of the system due to
inter-cluster interference. Proposed architecture also integrates fron-
thaul BF, clustered BF across the RRHs and fronthaul compression.
An inter-cluster joint optimization is then carried out demonstrating
better sum-rate performance compared to the intra-cluster and inter-
cluster TDMA based designs. Another work in (Zhan and Niyato, 2017)
proposed an architecture for cooperative transmission among RRHs
in the C-RAN by formulating a RRH coalition formation game. RRHs
are assumed to be capable to decide whether to form a coalition with
other RRHs to achieve improved performance. This coalition formation
among RRHs for jointly serving users can mitigate intra-interference
leading to better throughput compared to the non-coalition and grand
coalition.
4. Research on C-RAN throughput enhancement
Throughput enhancement is one of the major objectives of 5G cel-
lular networks. Therefore, research on the development of techniques
Md.F. Hossain et al.
for improving throughput in C-RAN system is of great importance. The
most recent works conducted on improving the throughput in C-RAN
systems are discussed here below.
As discussed before, performance of C-RAN is limited by the high
bit rate requirement in the fronthaul. Therefore, authors in (Duan
et al., 2016) investigated the maximum achievable throughput by
different transmission strategies in a C-RAN with clusters of RRHs
under transmission power constraints and fronthaul capacity con-
straints. Two transmission strategies are studied - without cooperation
and with cooperation among different cells. In the case of “without
cooperation”, each UE is served by only one RRH. Whereas, for the
case of “with cooperation”, multiple RRHs serve multiple UEs together,
which becomes equivalent to distributed MIMO (D-MIMO). From the
simulation results, it is evident that D-MIMO has a better performance
than that of “without cooperation” based transmission.
In (He et al., 2016), authors investigated the throughput of a two-
tier H-CRAN, where massive MIMO enabled MBSs work as the first
tier and RRHs work in the second tier. To mitigate the interference
between two tiers, soft fractional frequency reuse (S-FFR) is used. An
exact expression of throughput for the RRH tier and a closed form
lower bound expression for the MBSs throughput are provided. From
the system model, it is seen that with the dense number of RRHs, imple-
mentation of massive MIMO in MBSs can greatly enhance the through-
put of the entire C-RAN system. With the increase of MBS antenna,
throughput of MBS tier and H-CRAN increases greatly due to array gain,
while keeping the RRH throughput almost same. Adding more users in
the macrocell improves the throughput even further. This paper also
explores the effects of S-FFR and RRHs density on the C-RAN system
model. It is found that with the increase of S-FFR factor 𝛼 , throughput
of MBS tier and H-CRAN decreases for the low density RRHs system.
But for the high density RRHs system, throughput of H-CRAN increases
with 𝛼 due to the high number of resource block (RB) available at the
RRHs.
Whereas, a two-step scheduling algorithm for increasing the
throughput of C-RAN with delay sensitive applications was proposed in
(Li et al., 2017). The algorithm controls the inter-cell interference (ICI)
with relatively simple design. In the first step of the algorithm, users
are grouped according to their interference levels. Then, in the second
step, channels are allocated for maximizing the utilities of the groups. A
maximum weight matching approach with Kuhn-Munkres algorithm in
assigning the channels is used. While, in conventional soft frequency
reuse (SFR) algorithm, the users can only transmit at full power in
the edge band, proposed algorithm allows the users to use full power
always. It also shows superiority over the SFR algorithm with increasing
traffic arrival intensity. With high arrival rate, average delay and delay
violation probability are found much lower in the proposed algorithm
leading to significantly increased throughput.
Efficient resource allocation is necessary to achieve high throughput
in C-RAN system. Most of the resource allocation techniques in C-RAN
use orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), where
each RB can be associated with maximum one user at any time. In (Rai
et al., 2017), authors utilized NOMA technique for improving through-
put in C-RAN. As the original optimization problem is NP-hard, authors
propose a sub-optimal binary integer programming (BIP) algorithm and
a greedy scheduling scheme. In comparison to the present OFDMA allo-
cation techniques, such as static sharing and heuristic scheme, NOMA
provides a much higher throughput due to the fact that in NOMA,
UEs can share the RBs allowing the underutilized RBs to be used by
another RRHs. For example, in a system of 45 RRHs, it is found that
BIP and greedy scheme provide throughput around 340 Mbps, where
static sharing and heuristic schemes can extract 255 and 300 Mbps
respectively.
In (Wang and Sun, 2017), authors studied the mode selection
and resource allocation problem in an uplink device-to-device (D2D)
enabled C-RAN system. In D2D communications, users can commu-
nicate with each other without using RRHs. D2D communications
36
Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48
not only increase throughput and decrease latency, but also allow
optimization in the mode selection and resource allocation tech-
nique in C-RAN. Since the burdens of BBU pools and fronthaul is
large on the system, this paper utilizes a game-theoretic approach
to solve the problems. Simulation results prove that if D2D pairs
are allowed to choose between D2D mode or C-RAN mode, larger
throughput can be achieved. Utilization of exhaustive search can even
leads to higher throughput being as much as 93% of the optimal
value.
Another work presented in (Douik et al., 2016) proposed a joint
coordinated resource scheduling and power control based approach for
maximizing the weighted sum-rate in the downlink of C-RAN. In this
scheme, the cloud is responsible for the scheduling policy, power con-
trol and synchronization of the transmit frames across the BSs, where
transmit frame consists of several time/frequency blocks, named as
power-zones (PZs). Then, the problem becomes equivalent to schedul-
ing users to PZs and determining their power levels (PLs), where each
user can be served by more than one PZs within each BS frame. The
problem is then solved using a graph theoretical approach, while the
presented results clearly show the substantial improvement in sum-
rate. Besides, authors in (Al-Samman et al., 2016) formulated a novel
traffic aware joint scheduling (TAJS) resource virtualization algorithm
for C-RAN and investigated its potential benefits. A hypervisor among
different virtual operators (VOs) dynamically coordinates and allocates
air interface resources. This paper develops three distinctive resource
allocation schemes, which are then compared with the performance of
the standard Round Robin (RR) scheduling. Simulation results show
improvements in the throughput for both video and web users in all
the three schemes. In addition, reduction in end-to-end delay for delay
sensitive applications and fairness across all the users is also guaran-
teed.
On the other hand, a dynamic C-RAN operation framework for
mobile cloud computing (MCC) was proposed in (Cai et al., 2016).
Due to the inherent outdated CSI in such a system, the topology
configuration and rate-allocation problem with delayed CSI is formu-
lated using a deterministic stochastic optimization framework. This
framework has the capability in maximizing the MCC services’ sum
throughput with constraints on response latency experienced by each
MCC user. Moreover, this paper proposed a low complexity optimal
policy for the stochastic optimization problem with both offline and
online algorithms. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of
the proposed scheme in terms of throughput and latency of MCC
users.
Furthermore, uplink throughput maximization by jointly consider-
ing power control and fronthaul rate allocation of a OFDMA based C-
RAN system was investigated in (Liu et al., 2015). Here, each RRH’s
fronthaul capacity constraint is achieved by proposing a practical uni-
form scalar quantization at each RRH together with independent com-
pression among RRHs. Two different optimization problems for maxi-
mizing the sumrate are formulated. Due to the non-convexity of these
problems, efficient algorithms are then proposed for solving them.
Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed joint optimization
provides significant performance gain compared with optimizing only
wireless power control or fronthaul quantization. It is also shown that
the proposed uniform quantization scheme can perform very close to
the throughput performance upper bound.
It is to be noted that any technique proposed for reducing inter-
ference in a C-RAN system eventually improves its throughput. As we
group the papers specifically conducted on the interference manage-
ment of the C-RAN systems separately in Section 5, those papers are
not included in this section.
5. Research on interference management
As centralized operation of C-RAN facilitates the BS coordination
and joint signal processing across the network, interference manage-
Md.F. Hossain et al.
ment is expected to be more efficient than in the conventional net-
works (Dahrouj et al., 2015; Xiao et al., 2013). However, interference
management problems in C-RAN are more complex and nonconvex due
to the emergence of new set of cloud-structure variables (Xiao et al.,
2013). Managing interference in H-CRANs is even more challenging
because of its prolific heterogeneity, number of BSs, network size and
fronthaul/backhaul constraints.
Authors in (Liu et al., 2017) proposed a compressive sensing (CS)-
based joint narrowband interference (NBI) mitigation and user data
recovery technique for C-RANs. This technique exploits the inherent
sparsity in individual user data structure for reducing the fronthaul
capacity requirement. To do so, a sparse maximum likelihood estima-
tion (MLE) problem for maximizing the associated likelihood function
under individual sparsity levels (ISLs) constraints is formulated, which
is then solved using an alternating optimization (AO) algorithm. It
has been shown that proposed AO algorithm converges to the global
optimal solution of the sparse MLE problem under some mild condi-
tions. Performance of the C-RAN under various fronthaul capacity is
then quantified in closed form. Capability of the proposed technique in
outperforming the existing practical CS based interference cancellation
schemes and the conventional CS recovery algorithms is then demon-
strated.
On the other hand, a scheme with distributed baseband signal com-
pressive quantization and parallel interference cancellation (PIC) for C-
RAN is proposed in (Ma et al., 2018). At each RRH, the baseband signals
of multiple time instants are embedded into a vector with low dimen-
sion using delay-and-add so that more bits can be allocated to each
value and the quantization noise power caused by the fronthaul link
capacity deficit is reduced. Whereas, at the BBU side, the linear mini-
mum mean square error (LMMSE) and maximal ratio combining (MRC)
detectors are designed with the appropriate weight vectors to detect the
symbols from the compressive quantized baseband signal processed by
the RRHs. The PIC algorithm proposed in this paper further improves
the accuracy of the symbol detection by limiting interference. Numeri-
cal results confirm that the proposed scheme enables multi-antenna C-
RAN to utilize larger bandwidth under limited fronthaul capacity with
improved SINR performance.
Massive number of wireless devices in C-RAN may cause severe
inter-user interference (IUI) limiting its performance. The unique spa-
tial and temporal focusing effects of time-reversal (TR) communication
can be a promising tool for C-RAN to alleviate the traffic load in the
fronthaul links in both directions. Authors in (Ma et al., 2016) opti-
mized both downlink and uplink transmissions for mitigating IUI in TR
based CRAN systems. In the downlink, algorithms are proposed for opti-
mally determining the power allocation and transmitting waveforms to
minimize the mean square error (MSE) of the signal received by the
terminal devices (TDs). These algorithms combine the instantaneous
channel impulse responses (CIRs) as well as the intended symbols of all
the TDs available at BBUs. Whereas, CIRs of all the TDs available at
BBUs are utilized for optimizing joint transmit power control of all the
TDs and detector design in the uplink.
Clustering of RRHs can be integrated in C-RANs for enhancing
resource utilization through statistical multiplexing by grouping sev-
eral RRHs into a cluster and associating this cluster with a single BBU.
In light of this, authors in (Boulos et al., 2017) proposed an interference-
aware clustering in C-RAN. Proposed RRH clustering is formulated as
a set partitioning problem. Both optimal and heuristic solutions are
developed and solved under the constraint of a minimum throughput
requirement demonstrating improved system performance than that of
no-clustering counterpart. Whereas, for improving the performance of
the cluster-edge users by mitigating both the intra- and inter-cluster
interference, a dynamic joint processing (DJP) technique was proposed
in (Hajisami and Pompili, 2015). Proposed system utilizes a dynamic
clustering of virtual BSs (VBSs) in C-RAN. Here, VBS clusters are defined
as ‘uni-sub-carrier’, i.e., each cluster deals only with one sub-carrier.
Then the size of virtual clusters is dynamically optimized to reduce
37
Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48
the inter-cluster interference leading to increased throughput for the
cluster-edge users.
Furthermore, a local altruistic coalition formation game (LACF)
based dynamic cooperation scheme for spectrum sharing and inter-
ference management in hyper-dense C-RAN was proposed in (Sun et
al., 2016). The coalition game, formulated in a partition function
form (PFF), also takes into account the externalities resulting from
the mutual interference among the coalitions. Therefore, under the
proposed scheme, social welfare, i.e., the sum satisfaction of RRHs
is maximized in an environment with heterogeneous traffic. Corre-
spondingly, a local altruistic utility function is also designed for a
RRH to consider the interest of its own as well as of its neighbours.
Whereas, a joint transmission coordinated multi-point technology is
proposed to mitigate intra-coalition interference. A distributed coali-
tion formation algorithm based on modified recursive core is then
proposed for obtaining the final stable solution giving some disjoint
coalitions of RRHs. Numerical results identify the effectiveness of the
proposed scheme by outperforming the classical and non-cooperation
counterparts in the perspective of both social welfare and individual
fairness.
On the other hand, several research works on the interference mit-
igation in H-CRANs have been published in recent time (Qi and Wang,
2017; Zhang et al., 2015; Al-Samman et al., 2017; Peng et al., 2015b,
2015c). For instance, an interference-aware user association scheme for
a two-tier H-CRAN consisting of MBSs and femtocell BSs was proposed
in (Qi and Wang, 2017). BSs are enabled to switch their operation
modes for saving energy, decisions of which are derived in the cloud.
Proposed user association problem maximizes the user aggregate util-
ity, where a concave logarithmic utility function is used for each user.
For reducing complexity, a heuristic algorithm is proposed and solved
by decomposing it into two steps. First, the user association problem
by maximizing user aggregate utility is solved giving the optimal set
of candidate serving BSs. This step involves the calculation of selection
probability of a BS by a user using a log-learning method and a pricing
policy for BSs to account the interference experienced by a user. Then,
any BS having no associated user is switched into sleep mode. Superi-
ority of the proposed algorithm is also validated demonstrating better
effectiveness in large scale networks.
Whereas (Zhang et al., 2015), presented a cooperative interference
mitigation scheme using joint transmission (JT) CoMP based cluster-
ing for a H-CRAN with small cells BSs (SBSs). RRHs are divided into
measurement RRHs and coordinated RRHs clusters, which are deter-
mined using a semi-dynamic clustering technique. Measurement RRHs
is the set of RRHs, which share the measurement information such
as power levels and CSI. On the other hand, RRHs in the coordi-
nated RRHs cluster jointly receive and process data from the user.
Another cooperative scheme for mitigating inter-tier interference in
H-CRAN model consisting of several SBSs and one MBS was pro-
posed in (Al-Samman et al., 2017). This scheme uses a user weighted
probability-based algorithm (UWPA), which divides the spectrum into
shared and dedicated partitions. In shared spectrum part, both SBSs
and the MBS operate, while the dedicated part is used only by the
SBSs. Depending on the QoS requirements, users are divided into pre-
mium, golden and basic classes. Proposed UWPA algorithm allocates
each BS to the appropriate spectrum partition in order to meet the QoS
requirements.
A contract-based framework for mitigating the inter-tier interfer-
ence between RRHs and MBSs in H-CRANs was proposed in (Peng et al.,
2015b). This framework integrates three different scheduling schemes,
which are implemented by dividing the downlink transmission inter-
val into three phases. Depending on the utilization of radio resources
by the RRHs and the MBS, the three phases are named as RRH-alone
with UEs-all, RRH-alone with RUEs-only and RRH-MBS with UEs-separated
schemes. In the proposed contract, BBU cloud works as the principal
and offers a contract to the MBS (the agent). Then based on an individ-
ual rational constraint, the agent decides whether to accept or reject the
Md.F. Hossain et al.
contract. Furthermore, optimal contracts for maximizing the rate-based
utility are designed for both perfect and imperfect CSI scenarios. Result-
ing optimal contracts achieve the optimized transmission durations for
the above three phases and the optimized received power allocation for
both the RRH and MBS users.
Finally, authors in (Peng et al., 2015c) proposed an inter-tier inter-
ference suppression framework for H-CRAN by integrating collabora-
tive processing and cooperative radio resource allocation (CRRA). More
specifically, interference collaboration (IC) and BF are proposed to mit-
igate the interference. Both IC- and BF-based CRRA optimization mod-
els are developed, which maximize the sum-rates of the RRH users
using optimal power allocation, which is solved by transforming them
into convex problems and applying the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) con-
ditions. The optimal power allocation algorithms for both RRHs and
the MBS are developed using the transformed Lagrangian function. In
addition, closed-form expressions for various performance metrics are
derived. Presented results identify that the IC and BF schemes should
be adaptively switched as the superiority of these two schemes depends
on the network settings.
6. Research on C-RAN energy efficiency
C-RAN, as a contender for 5G cellular networks, must be highly
energy efficient. This section discusses some of the recent works focused
on the EE of C-RAN (Li and Feng, 2017; Zhang et al., 2017; Wang et
al., 2018; Yu et al., 2018; Vu et al., 2018; Ghods et al., 2017; Zeng et
al., 2017; Lin et al., 2016; Li et al., 2016; Liu et al., 2018; Chen et al.,
2014; Zhou et al., 2018).
To increase the EE of a C-RAN with spatially distributed RRHs,
authors in (Li and Feng, 2017) proposed two different optimization
schemes. One is the C-RAN based energy efficient power allocation
(CEEPA) and the other is the low complexity CRAN based energy
efficient power allocation (LCEEPA). Both schemes are developed con-
sidering multiple access interference (MAI) as well as imperfect channel
state information at the transmitter (CSIT). In the proposed schemes,
resources and QoS are taken into account to maximize EE of the sys-
tem. The CEEPA scheme helps to allocate power under the desired
QoS and a given outage probability, whereas the LCEEPA algorithm
reduces the computational complexity in solving the inner loop prob-
lem generated in CEEPA scheme. By analyzing the statistical property
of SINR, a closed-form expression of outage probability for each pair of
transceiver is derived. Random matrix theory guides to derive deter-
ministic expression of transmit power per RRH and received SINR,
assuming infinite numbers of UEs and RRHs respectively. Analytical
expression of the outage probability helps to reduce the difficulty in
solving a chance constraint-contained optimization problem. Numer-
ical analysis proves that the proposed schemes can effectively save
energy.
Another energy efficient resource allocation scheme for uplink C-
RAN using SDN was investigated in (Zhang et al., 2017). Here, all
mobile terminals (MT) are divided into two groups based on their trans-
mission requirements. MTs having no transmission requirements are
assigned to the first group and the others are assigned to the second
group. When second group users communicate with RRHs, some of the
users from the first group can act as relays for them. Thus the pro-
posed energy efficient uplink resource allocation scheme is formulated
by a multi-user multi-relay multi-network system. On the other hand,
for enhancing both performance and EE of C-RAN, a joint energy mini-
mization and resource allocation using a nonconvex optimization tech-
nique was proposed in (Wang et al., 2017c). This nonconvex optimiza-
tion is then reformulated into an equivalent convex problem based on
weighted minimum mean square error (WMMSE) approach. The itera-
tive algorithm is finally given to deal with the joint resource allocation
in C-RAN with mobile cloud.
Authors in (Yu et al., 2018) proposed a low-complexity dynamic
resource provisioning algorithm considering radio access unit (RAU)
38
Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48
sleep scheduling and virtual machine (VM) consolidation to increase
EE. Considering these two aspects of saving energy, a joint resource
provisioning (JRP) problem of the RAUs and the cloud-based computing
units (CUs) is formulated, which is further formulated as a special bin-
packing problem. Number of items and the sizes of items are adjustable
and related to each other in this problem. JRP problem includes both
ON-FF problems of VMs in the CU pool and the ON-OFF problems of
RAUs. Proposed algorithm dynamically selects the active RAUs and
consolidates the VMs to CUs to solve the JRP problem. VM migra-
tions may reduce the network service quality. To make tradeoff between
energy saving and VM migration reductions, a context-aware strategy
is also proposed. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the pro-
posed algorithm and demonstrates its capability to be used in large
networks.
In (Vu et al., 2018), iterative algorithms for maximizing EE of
a downlink C-RAN were proposed. Here, based on data-sharing and
compression strategies, new problems of EE maximization is formu-
lated, which involve maximum transmit power at each RRH, practi-
cal constraints on routing, predefined minimum data rates and fron-
thaul capacity. At first, the problems are converted into their epigraph
forms and then to equivalent problems including continuous variables
only. The proposed iterative algorithms can solve the mixed-integer
nonlinear problem formulations, where each iteration solves only one
simple convex program. From numerical results, it is found that the
proposed algorithms enhance EE for both single-hop and multi-hop
networks. Another scheme for improving the EE of C-RAN by using
tunable downlink distance-based power control mechanism was pre-
sented in (Ghods et al., 2017). Two cases, namely, half fractional
power control (HFPC) and full power control (FPC) are considered. In
the case of FPC, EE increases with cell radius up to a certain value
and then decreases. On the other hand, for the case of HFPC, EE
increases with radius at first and then get saturated at a higher value.
So, a higher EE can be achieved for higher cell radius in this HFPC
case.
Renewable energy source is also being investigated for operating
C-RAN leading to reduced conventional grid power consumption. In
(Zeng et al., 2017), a novel energy efficient network model named
renewable energy powered C-RAN (Re-CRAN) is proposed, where each
network elements are powered by both brown and renewable energy
sources. Proposed network model consisting of control plane, data plane
and energy plane, is capable to perform joint management of net-
work resources and energy resources. Energy plane contains distributed
energy resources (DERs), distributed energy storage devices (DESDs)
and energy routers. DESD is responsible for optimization of energy
usage and energy router does the job of energy sharing. To prove the
effectiveness of the design, a case study is carried out on a Re-CRAN
with densely deployed RRHs. It is found that the proposed Re-CRAN
model is capable to substantially reduce the brown energy consump-
tion indicating an increase in EE.
Authors in (Lin et al., 2016) proposed a framework for designing
user centric green cloud based C-RAN that incorporates a new network
design metric called quality-EE (QEE), which is defined as achieved
QoE per unit of energy consumed in the network. In C-RAN, the data
which is transmitted between the RRHs and the BBU pool is over-
sampled in the order of Gbps. Power consumed at such high capac-
ity fronthaul links is large and it is comparable to the power con-
sumed at the RRHs for data transmission and operation. Therefore, it
is necessary to consider power consumption for both RRH data trans-
mission and the fronthaul links to design an energy efficient C-RAN.
In light of this, this paper formulated a max-min optimization prob-
lem that includes QEE as performance metric. An efficient algorithm
is also proposed to solve the problem and simulation results show
the near-optimal performance of the proposed algorithm. QEE metric
is also demonstrated as an effective tool for designing an user-centric
C-RAN.
Md.F. Hossain et al.
Fig. 4. Change in power consumption and EE with activity ratio of house users
(Chen et al., 2014).
Several works have been done on the EE aspects of H-CRAN based
cellular networks (Li et al., 2016; Liu et al., 2018; Chen et al., 2014;
Zhou et al., 2018). For instance, paper (Li et al., 2016) proposed a
scheme to obtain EE-guaranteed trade-off between throughput utility
and delay performance in a downlink of a slotted H-CRAN jointly tak-
ing congestion control and resource optimization into consideration. A
problem is formulated as a stochastic optimization problem that main-
tains the network stability and the utility of average throughput. To
tackle the problem, an online control framework is designed, which
can make three important control decisions: traffic admission control,
user association, and RB and power allocations. With the help of this
technique, the formulated problem can be transformed and decomposed
into three separate subproblems, which can be simultaneously solved at
each slot with online observation of virtual queues and traffic queues
determined by the joint optimization results at the previous slot. Theo-
retically, it is shown that the proposal can control the throughput-delay
performance trade-off maintaining required EE performance. Simula-
tion results also validate the claim.
Another radio resource management scheme for optimizing the EE
of H-CRAN was proposed in (Liu et al., 2018). An energy consumption
model is developed, which can characterize the energy consumption of
RRHs, fronthaul and BBU pool in H-CRAN. A network EE maximiza-
tion problem considering minimum data rates, maximum transmission
power of RRHs, enhanced RRHs (eRRHs) and the maximum fronthaul
capacity is formulated, which is the mixed integer non-linear program-
ming problem (MLNLP). To solve this MLNLP, an algorithm named
H-CRAN energy-efficient radio resource management (HERM) is pro-
posed. Simulation results prove that under dynamic network traffic,
HERM can boost the network EE by 59%, as compared with a base-
line algorithm. In addition, comparison with an energy-efficient radio
resource allocation (ERA) algorithm that does not take energy consump-
tion of the BBU pool into consideration shows 51% better performance
in energy saving.
Furthermore, authors in (Chen et al., 2014) proposed a pre-coding
scheme to increase the EE of a H-CRAN system. A macro/femto Het-
Net is considered, where High RRH (H-RRH) acts as MBS and low RRH
(L-RRH) acts as a femto BS. The system has single H-RRH and many L-
RRHs. Each RRH is serving one user and each office has higher number
of L-RRH than a house. It is shown that the proposed scheme of (Chen
et al., 2014) allows higher throughput, while consuming much less
power than the traditional HetNet without C-RAN as shown in Fig. 4
with the activity ratio of house users. Consequently, EE is significantly
higher for H-CRAN than that of HetNet as illustrated in the same
figure.
39
Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48
Finally, paper (Zhou et al., 2018) focused on the EE of a NOMA
enabled H-CRAN. Some technologies, which can be used in NOMA H-
CRAN, challenges to implement these technologies and open research
issues are discussed in this paper. Massive user connectivity, increasing
severe spectrum scarcity and high penetration of energy constrained
devices may degrade network performance and QoS in H-CRAN. If
NOMA schemes are incorporated in H-RAN, EE can be improved. NOMA
assists H-CRAN to provide services to the users using non-orthogonal
resources. Other advanced technologies such as CR, massive MIMO,
wireless charging, cooperative transmission, mmWave communications
and D2D communications are also discussed in this paper. A perfor-
mance study also shows that the NOMA enabled H-CRAN can enhance
the overall EE greatly.
7. Research on delay minimization in C-RAN
Delay (latency) in 5G cellular networks is another major concern
as extremely low latency is required for many applications. Therefore,
research on the minimization of communication delay in C-RAN as well
as on the delay-guaranteed operations of C-RAN is of extreme impor-
tance. However, to date, there are only few works focusing on the delay
issue of C-RAN available in literature as discussed below (Ren et al.,
2018; Wang et al., 2015, 2017c; Wu and Ghosal, 2016; Arfaoui et al.,
2017; Lien et al., 2015; Xiang et al., 2015; Hung et al., 2018; Dai and
Liu, 2017; Tran et al., 2017).
Authors in (Ren et al., 2018) introduced the concept of effective
capacity (EC) theory taking delay into account such that it can be
used for statistical delay-bounded QoS provisioning in ultra reliable and
low-latency communications (URLLC) in C-RAN systems. EC is defined
as the maximum constant transmission frame arrival rate that a sys-
tem can support, while satisfying a maximum delay outage probability
constraint. This paper also proposes comprehensive power allocation
schemes for maximizing the sum EC for both the single-user and multi-
user cases. It is also validated through simulations that by appropri-
ately choosing the delay exponent, the delay outage probability can be
reduced to below 10−9 . Moreover, achievable EC by proposed algorithm
is found to be much higher compared to other counterparts, especially
in the case of stringent delay requirements.
In (Wang et al., 2015), a delay-optimal fronthaul allocation scheme
for C-RANs was investigated. An extended form of this work was
later presented in (Wang et al., 2017c). Proposed optimization prob-
lem in (Wang et al., 2017c) is formulated as an infinite horizon
average cost Markov decision process (MDP). To solve the problem,
first, closed form expressions of approximate priority function and the
associated error bound by using perturbation analysis are achieved.
Then, a low-complexity delay-aware fronthaul allocation algorithm is
proposed for solving the per-stage optimization problem. Proposed
scheme is shown to be asymptotically optimal for sufficiently small
cross link residual interference. Moreover, comparison with other base-
line algorithms, proposed one shows significant delay performance
gain.
In (Wu and Ghosal, 2016), authors proposed an analytical model for
better understanding the C-RAN model and provided a cost-constrained
resource management framework for delay minimization. In the ana-
lytical model, dynamic resource sharing with balanced fair resource
allocation technique is implemented. Performance comparison between
C-RAN and traditional RAN (T-RAN) is also provided and the condi-
tions when the CRAN outperforms T-RAN are identified. For the com-
parison purpose, multiplexing gain is defined as the throughput ratio
of C-RAN to T-RAN while keeping the network size, traffic load and
resource budget same for both the cases. It is seen that C-RAN per-
forms better than T-RAN with homogeneous load, when C-RAN is more
cost effective. C-RAN also shows considerably better performance under
heterogeneous load. Therefore, although the performance advantage
of C-RAN over T-RAN depends on the network size, traffic character-
istics and resource cost parameters, it is possible to design a C-RAN
Md.F. Hossain et al.
system that outperforms T-RAN architecture by maintaining sufficient
conditions.
Furthermore (Arfaoui et al., 2017), proposed a new method to
minimize the processing delay of various services by utilizing queue
concept to optimize BBU selection. A triple layer queuing network is
used for characterizing each request of service. All incoming traffic is
first controlled by a dispatcher queue unit which chooses the conve-
nient BBU for the operation, which is modeled as an M/M/1 queue.
The equivalent VMs of BBUs are also modeled as M/M/1 queues. The
task in each queue is done as first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis and the
buffer length is assumed infinite. The main idea of the work is to
optimize the BBU selection process at the dispatcher unit for achiev-
ing minimum response time while meeting resource constraints. To
achieve short response time, authors resolve the execution rate at the
dispatcher and each BBU, while maintain the stability and resource
cost constraints. Proposed scheme offers lowest response time than
resource-based or random selection scheme. At the same time, total
throughput is also the highest for the proposed system. Therefore, this
method can be implemented in the C-RAN BBU pool to reduce the
system response time by two to three times, while providing higher
throughput.
On the other hand, with the aim of achieving ultra-latency com-
munication in H-CRAN, a theoretical framework as well as some
case studies were presented in (Lien et al., 2015). It is pointed out
that for achieving millisecond-level latency over H-CRAN, latency in
the radio access, optimization computation, routing and paging must
be reduced. In light of this, this paper proposes and investigates
a H-CRAN system with open-loop radio access reducing latency in
the air interface, information bridled resource optimization reducing
latency of radio resource optimization, and social data cache-based
routing/paging scheme reducing latency in the backhaul packet for-
warding. Several new research issues are also summarized in this
paper.
A dynamic stochastic resource optimization problem with the objec-
tive of efficient tradeoff between EE and queue delay constraint
in H-CRANs was investigated in (Xiang et al., 2015). An easily
implementable Lyapunov optimization approach requiring only the
local information at the transmitter is used for solving the prob-
lem. Besides, for obtaining near-optimal system stability by avoid-
ing traffic congestion, an EE optimization problem subject to the
power consumption of RRHs and interference constraints is also inves-
tigated, which is then solved using WMMSE approach. Considered
EE utility function is defined as the weighted sum of transmit rate
and total energy consumption in RRHs. Numerical results demon-
strate an efficient tradeoff between time averaged EE and queue
backlogs.
Another work on the latency issue in H-CRAN was presented in
(Hung et al., 2018). This paper proposed a proactive network asso-
ciation mechanism of intelligent mobile machines (IMMs) by taking
CoMP into consideration in H-CRAN systems. The main objective of
the paper is to develop delay-aware ‘vehicle’-centric approach for fully
exploiting the advantages of CoMP and at the same time, prevent the
resulting signaling overheads to improve the delay performance. Con-
sidered HCRAN architecture consists of multiple access points (APs)
providing smaller coverage and a high power node (HPN) providing
ubiquitous coverage. Two scenarios, namely, with and without the
assistance of the HPN, are considered. For the first scenario without
HPN, IMMs can’t access HPN and only rely on the distributed APs.
Whereas for the second scenario, an IMM can select either APs or HPN
for better service. Lyapunov optimization theory, effective bandwidth
and capacity theory are used for developing the mathematical solution
of the association mechanism. Capability of the proposed association
mechanism in guaranteeing the queueing delay performance as well
as the delay violation probability is demonstrated through numerical
results.
40
Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48
Finally, caching at the wireless edge is an efficient technique for
reducing latency (Dai and Liu, 2017; Tran et al., 2017). Cache can be
deployed at both BBU pool and RRHs of C-RAN. In light of this, paper
(Dai and Liu, 2017) proposed a cache enabled C-RAN with the nec-
essary strategy that reduces the transmission and handover latency for
mobile users. A mobility aware cache management controller (MACMC)
for the BBU pool is designed, which consists of a mobility estimator,
a bandwidth estimator, a user video-segment-requests table (UVSRT)
and a cache scheduler. MACMC utilizes the computation and storage
resources in CRAN, and makes cache decisions for both the BBU pool
and RRHs. A proactive caching algorithm, named MAPCaching, is also
proposed, which can significantly reduce delay compared to the two
other benchmark strategies discussed in the paper. It is also identified
that MAPCaching algorithm can also outperform these two benchmark
schemes easily even in the case of large number of users and provide
the lowest delay.
8. Research on C-RAN security
Despite the incredible advantages of C-RAN over the traditional net-
works, C-RAN can be vulnerable to a number of new threats in addition
to the existing security issues of any wireless cellular networks. How-
ever, from our extensive search, we have found only few research works
specifically conducted on the security issues of C-RAN systems as dis-
cussed below in this section (Wu et al., 2015; Tian et al., 2017; Fang et
al., 2018; You et al., 2014; Yan and Wang, 2014; Xu et al., 2017; Liu,
2017; Rawat et al., 2012; Yang et al., 2017).
The three-layer based C-RAN architecture presented in (Wu et al.,
2015) placed the security functions in the top most plane, i.e., in the
service plane. Functions of this security block include the protection
of the infrastructure and data from invasion, providing identity recog-
nition and access control. On the other hand, a thorough review on
the potential security threats and attacks in the context of C-RAN cor-
responding to these three logic layers was investigated in (Tian et
al., 2017). Besides, this paper also presents a framework of security
and trust requirements of C-RAN. Access control to resources to fight
against primary user emulation attack (PUEAs), privacy intrusions and
CR node impersonation attacks; robustness for overcoming the security
threats caused by jamming, denial-of-service (DoS) or distributed DoS
(DDoS) attacks; confidentiality, integrity and availability of user data;
strict authentication for overcoming CR node impersonation attacks
and primary user impersonation attacks; privacy of operators and end
users; trust management among the collaborating operators; and non-
repudiation to overcome the threats caused by impersonation attacks
and radio spectrum attacks are some of the security requirements as
summarized by the authors. It is also pointed out that as C-RAN involves
cloud computing, security issues applicable for any cloud computing
system are equally applicable for CRAN. Moreover, this paper includes
an intuitive discussion on the probable solutions and research directions
for the identified security threats including their strength and weak-
ness.
Another holistic work on the study of security challenges in C-RAN
based 5G cellular networks was presented in (Fang et al., 2018). Details
on the nature of various attacks as well as the state-of-the-art secu-
rity solutions in the context of C-RAN involving advanced technologies,
such as HetNets, D2D communications, massive MIMO, SDNs and IoT
are summarized. Then, a new security architecture for C-RAN based
5G cellular networks is proposed by the authors. Proposed architec-
ture separates data plane and control plane, where the data plane is
programmable in a flexible way. Four security domains, namely, net-
work access security, network domain security, user domain security
and application domain security, with specific functions are defined.
Finally, as a case study, a handover procedure as well as a signaling
load scheme is presented for demonstrating the advantages of the pro-
posed security architecture.
Md.F. Hossain et al.
A work on the physical layer security analysis with a tradeoff
between security and reliability performance for the downlink C-RAN
under the presence of an eavesdropper was presented in (You et al.,
2014). The analysis involves the selection of optimal RRHs for a real-
istic scenario with Rayleigh fading channels and imperfect CSI. More
specifically, this paper proposes a three-phase transmission scheme and
uses the linear MMSE estimation method for obtaining the CSI. Then,
based on the estimated CSI and the statistics of channel estimation
errors, closed form expressions of both outage probability and inter-
cept probability are derived for analyzing the reliability and security
performance respectively. Notably, a degradation of intercept prob-
ability with the increasing number of RRHs is found. Moreover, an
opposite trend of the two probabilities is identified with the increas-
ing number of training symbols. On the other hand, a study on the
physical layer security in the downlink of two-tier H-CRAN systems
was presented in (Yan and Wang, 2014). To quantify the perfor-
mance, closed form expression of secrecy transmission capacity for
K-tier H-CRAN is derived. Moreover, two different security strate-
gies based on eavesdropper neutralization region to protect the target
RRU user against eavesdropping are developed. Strategies are formu-
lated based on the assumption that the RRHs are capable to phys-
ically inspect its neighboring area for distinguishing the legitimate
receiver from the eavesdropper(s). If any eavesdropper is detected, a
RRH blocks the wiretap channel by sending jamming signal, or the
user will switch to its closest MBS. Simulation results demonstrate
an enhanced secrecy performance though it depends on the system
parameters.
On the other hand, authors in (Xu et al., 2017) presented a novel
channel quantization method for improving the security enhancement
of C-RAN in an environment with limited CSI. Probabilities of con-
ventional quantization method in exacerbating the leakage of privacy
information in eavesdropping environment motivates the authors to
propose this alternative method. First, a secrecy-oriented criterion is
developed for generating a codebook. A weighted Voronoi diagram
is then formulated on the complex Grassmann manifold. Finally, the
quantization codebook is built up by using the proposed vector quan-
tization algorithm in an iterative way. The key observation from the
results is that by exploiting the statistical distribution of the chan-
nel matrices of both the legitimate user and the eavesdropper, a win-
win situation can be created with an improved secrecy-rate gains.
Furthermore, authors in (Liu, 2017) investigated the impact of path-
loss effects on the uplink secrecy of C-RANs under the presence of
eavesdropper RRH. To quantify the secrecy, closed form expression
of strictly positive secrecy capacity (SPSC) is developed consider-
ing two-dimensional homogeneous Poisson point process (PPP) dis-
tributed RRHs and Rayleigh fading. Fading is found to have more
significant impact on the secrecy than that of the deployed device
intensity.
Whereas, a radio resource management algorithm for the security
of C-RAN system enhanced with CR was proposed in (Rawat et al.,
2012). In this system model, BBU cloud stores the spectrum occupancy
information and facilitates the access of spectrum opportunities for sec-
ondary users (SUs). In particular, proposed algorithm allocates radio
resources to SUs by matching the locations of SUs with the locations
of the idle frequency bands. Thus the algorithm helps to avoid interfer-
ence from SUs to primary users and provides security in CR networks
(CRNs). The algorithm is implemented in the cloud computing facil-
ities using the real-time processing model Storm, which dynamically
partitions the geographical area according to the SU density. Parallel
computation facilities in the cloud facilitates the implementation of the
proposed algorithm. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate
the performance of the proposed secure radio resource management
algorithm.
Moreover, it is apparent that generic C-RAN would face great
difficulty in providing an authenticity for guaranteeing the service secu-
rity and device creditability. In addition, resource accessing can also
41
Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48
be expensive. In light of this, a blockchain-based trusted authentication
(BTA) architecture for C-RAN based 5G cellular networks over fiber net-
work was proposed in (Yang et al., 2017). A blockchain-based anony-
mous access (BAA) scheme is outlined for the execution of BTA archi-
tecture. Proposed architecture is capable in performing authentication
through a tripartite agreement among the equipment manufacturers,
users and network operators. Evaluation of the proposed architecture
on an enhanced SDN testbed validates its trusted access capability with
low cost.
9. Research on system cost minimization
Explosive growth in capacity demand in recent time and the result-
ing increase in the number of BSs lead to a significantly higher CAPEX
and OPEX for the network operators. Therefore, cost minimization
in future cellular networks has become a major concern. C-RAN is
expected to reduce both CAPEX and OPEX as discussed earlier. How-
ever, there exists only a handful number of research works conducted
on the development of architectures and algorithms with quantitative
analysis for lowering cost in C-RAN systems (Wang et al., 2016, 2017b;
Lisi et al., 2017; Tang et al., 2017; Peng et al., 2017; Lin et al., 2017;
Zhong et al., 2017; Suryaprakash et al., 2015b).
First of all, with the increasing interest in C-RAN technology, the
cost of migration from the traditional distributed RAN system (D-RAN)
to C-RAN is a crucial issue for proper justification as it involves huge
investment for new infrastructures. In light of this, a study on the migra-
tion cost of CRAN utilizing TCO defined as the sum of CAPEX and
OPEX was presented in (Lisi et al., 2017). A digital unit (DU) pool
placement optimization problem using mixed integer linear program-
ming (MILP) for minimizing the TCO is formulated. Numerical results
are evaluated and presented under different deployment scenarios. It is
found that the migration cost depends mainly on cell size and the pres-
ence of optical infrastructure. If optical infrastructure does not exist,
then the migration cost of C-RAN from D-RAN can be compensated in
approximately 10 years, whereas the partial availability of the optical
infrastructure can reduce this compensation time considerably. More-
over, densely deployed cells provide more cost efficient migration as
less time is required to compensate the migration cost. For instance, for
the replacement of D-RAN using microcells requires 14–20 years for the
compensation, whereas deployment of C-RAN with picocell reduces this
time to only 5 years.
Whereas, a work on the minimization of system cost in C-RAN
system under the practical constraint of limited fronthaul capacity
was presented in (Tang et al., 2017). In the proposed model, BBU
pool of C-RAN is assumed as a collection of VMs, while each UE is
allowed to associate with multiple VMs in the BBU pool and each RRH
can only serve a limited number of UEs. Processing cost in the BBU
pool, and the wireless transmission cost in the fronthaul and RRHs
are summed together to define the system cost, which is then mini-
mized. Authors then formulate a mixed-integer nonlinear programming
(MINLP) for jointly optimizing the VM activation and sparse BF in
order to minimize the system cost. MINLP problem is then converted
to an equivalent problem by adjusting the value of the price vector
and reducing to a sub-problem. The sub-problem is solved using inte-
ger search (IS) approach and a joint optimization with integer recov-
ery (JR) approach as well. Closed form solution for the JR approach
is also derived. It is found that IR and JR show better performance
with lower system cost than decoupled-layer algorithm. Numerical
results also prove the superiority of the proposed schemes in terms
of robustness as well as lowering system cost than the benchmark
algorithms.
As the cost of fronthaul in C-RAN contributes a significant amount
of cost, traditional SE and EE is not capable to directly take the impact
of diverse costs into account. Therefore, a novel cost-efficient resource
allocation scheme for C-RAN system by considering the cost of differ-
ent types of fronthaul links (e.g., fiber, copper, radio, microwave and
Md.F. Hossain et al.
Fig. 5. ESE performance with the transmit power (Peng et al., 2017).
mmWave links) was proposed in (Peng et al., 2017). This paper out-
lined a new performance metric named as enhanced economical spec-
tral efficiency (ESE) by combining the cost of coexisting heterogeneous
(wired and wireless) fronthaul links and the traditional EE. Here, ESE is
defined as the ratio of effective system throughput to energy consump-
tion weighted by the cost coefficients of fronthaul links. Then an ESE
optimization problem under the transmit power and fronthaul capacity
constraints is formulated, which is non-convex. Therefore, the prob-
lem is transformed into an equivalent optimization subproblem real-
ized by an iterative dimension search method and solved by using the
WMMSE approach. Simulation results validate ESE as a better metric
for evaluating C-RAN performance. Proposed algorithm also provides
improved ESE performance over a benchmark algorithm as shown in
Fig. 5.
In (Wang et al., 2016), authors provided an architecture by incor-
porating a joint cost-effective resource allocation algorithm between
C-RAN and MCC system. This paper assumes that the mobile cloud is
responsible for the computational intensive task, while the BBU pool is
in charge of returning the execution results to the UEs through RRHs.
Thus in the proposed model, operator’s cost is addressed in two parts:
cost of executing the task in the mobile cloud and the cost of transmit-
ting the result to users. Correspondingly, a joint cost minimization prob-
lem is formulated, which is NP-hard non-convex. By converting it to
the equivalent WMMSE and using an iterative algorithm, this joint cost
minimization problem is solved. Resulting algorithm minimizes mobile
operators’ cost leading to higher profit, while the task time requirement
constraint is maintained.
Furthermore, a dynamic resource management mechanism for the
centralized computing resources in the BBU cloud was investigated in
(Lin et al., 2017). The objective of the mechanism is to improve the cost
effectiveness by increasing the revenue with minimal computing server
operations cost. Thus the resource allocation problem is formulated
as a linear programming problem of a combination of NP-complete
knapsack and bin packing problems. Two-phase approximations are
then used for solving the problem by finding the required number of
active computing servers. Numerical results illustrate the effectiveness
of the proposed mechanism in increasing revenue by reducing operating
cost.
On the other hand, a complementary architecture for CRAN along
with an investigation on the tradeoffs among area spectrum efficiency
(ASE), mean delay and system cost was presented in (Zhong et al.,
2017). Proposed architecture exploits the advantages of both C-RAN
42
Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48
and traditional BSs, and is modeled combining the Neyman–Scott clus-
ter process and the Poisson hole process. Two different transmission
modes, namely, RRH selection mode and the cooperation mode, are
applied in combination, while the ratio of the number of sub-frames
in these two modes can be exploited for further optimizing the ASE,
delay and cost. Simulation models as well as closed form expressions are
developed for evaluating tradeoffs. System cost per unit area includes
the energy cost as well as the deployment cost of BBU pools, RRHs,
fronthaul links and the traditional BSs. Presented results indicate that
the cost is always positively correlated to the ASE.
A theoretic framework for quantitatively evaluating the deployment
cost of H-CRAN was developed in (Suryaprakash et al., 2015b). The cost
model used in this papers incorporates the costs of BSs, data center, and
the equipment in the microwave and the optical fronthaul links. Vari-
ants of Poisson point process is used for modeling the different deploy-
ment scenarios of HCRAN systems. Then, the framework along with
a complexity model for computing the information processing costs is
used for comparing the deployment cost of H-CRAN with that of a tra-
ditional LTE network. Using this framework, this paper shows that H-
CRAN has approximately 10%–15% less CAPEX per square kilometer.
Savings comes from the adaptability of H-CRAN to the varying traffic
load and the fact that the required number of processors in BBU pool
does not increase linearly with the traffic load. It is also identified that
the deployment cost of H-CRAN largely depends on the intensities of
user and data centers as well as on the type of fronthaul technologies.
In particular, use of a mix of fronthaul technologies is found less costly
than using just one type of technology. Another quantitative cost analy-
sis for identifying whether the centralized, distributed or hybrid CRAN
has lower TCO was investigated in (Wang et al., 2017b). Numerical
results concluded that a hybrid C-RAN, where some functions are cen-
tralized and some are distributed, has much lower TCO than the other
twos.
10. Open issues and research directions
As a candidate technology for 5G cellular networks, C-RAN has
drawn huge interests from the telecommunication industries, mobile
network operators and researchers due to its some remarkable advan-
tages including reduced CAPEX and OPEX, improved network perfor-
mance and management, easy upgrade and expansion, friendly multi-
standard support and enhanced scalability. However, there exists vari-
ous critical challenges in implementing C-RAN based cellular networks.
Research in C-RAN is still very much in its infancy and a great deal
of research effort is required for making substantial improvements in
C-RAN for using it as a practical communication system. A rational
justification is also necessary to be established in favor of C-RAN by
taking the available fronthaul network capacity, compression schemes
and virtualization cost of BBU resources into account.
First of all, C-RAN has to be designed so that it can meet the strin-
gent requirements of the envisaged 5G cellular networks. Therefore,
high throughput, ultra reliability, delay and cost minimization, and
supporting a massive number of user devices are the key research chal-
lenges in C-RAN. The fronthaul links between the RRHs and the BBU
cloud have a crucial impact on the performance of C-RAN. These links
have to have high capacity and low latency. Hence, fronthaul-aware
efficient signal quantization/compression techniques, large-scale pre-
coding/decoding, MAC schemes, and resource allocation and schedul-
ing mechanisms are required to optimize network SE, EE and diverse
QoS requirements. As a large number of RRHs access the BBU pool,
NOMA can be a good candidate for MAC. Moreover, cooperative clus-
tering of RRHs with cluster-based access of the BBU cloud may decrease
the burden on fronthaul as well as reduce latency, which requires care-
ful investigation.
For optimal EE of C-RAN, instantaneous traffic-aware operation of
RRHs and scheduling of BBUs in the cloud is highly significant. Thus, in
addition to the existing resource scheduling algorithms, enhanced algo-
Md.F. Hossain et al. Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48

Table 1
A summary of the reviewed papers on the C-RAN architectures.
Research Area References
Architecture Wu et al. (2015)
Peng et al. (2015a)
Dahrouj et al. (2015)
Boviz et al. (2017)
C-RAN (2011)
Park et al. (2017)
Wang et al. (2017a)
Meerja et al. (2015b)
Miyanabe et al. (2015)
Sundaresan et al. (2016)
Liu et al. (2014)
Wang et al. (2017b)
Kolawole et al. (2017)
Zhan and Niyato (2017)
Chen et al. (2017)
Solution Approach
Theoretical framework and case study
Survey on the architecture, key
techniques and future work
Theoretical framework and case study
Optimal fronthaul allocation
optimization
Theoretical framework
Optimization and numerical analysis
Numerical modeling and analysis
Theoretical framework and case study
Theoretical framework and case study
Theoretical framework and numerical
analysis
Theoretical framework
Theoretical framework and numerical
analysis
Numerical modeling and analysis
Numerical modeling and analysis
Theoretical framework and case study
Performance Metric Main Feature
Sum-rate (bit/s/Hz) Split of C-RAN in three logical layers
- physical, control and service planes
Per-cell sum-rate (bits/channel use), Three different architectures - fully
data rate (Mbps) and delay per UE centralized, partially centralized and
(sec) hybrid
Sum-rate (bps/Hz) Single cloud and multi-cloud based
H-CRAN architectures
Net benefit of the transmission NOMA enabled C-RAN with reduced
(bits/cu) and efficiency of fronthaul cost, increased efficiency and
usage throughput
N/A Two different architectures - fully
centralized and partially centralized
Sum-rate (bit/s/Hz) RRHs clustering based C-RAN with
necessary algorithm
Aggregate utility C-RAN with BF for maximizing the
aggregate user utility
Throughput (Mbps) A new H-CRAN architecture having
PUs and SUs
Transmission power of OLTs (Watt) PON based architecture with power
and QoE value over fiber having reduced
transmission power of OLTs, while
satisfying QoE level
Traffic satisfaction (%) FluidNet: An architecture with higher
traffic satisfaction and reduced
computing resource usage
N/A CONCERT: an architecture with three
distinguished planes - data, control
and software-defined service planes
TCO A low cost hybrid architecture H-RAN
Outage probability, throughput mmWave enabled C-RAN
(bits/Hz) and latency (sec)
Probability of coalition formation and RRHs coalition formation based
network throughput (Mbps) C-RAN with necessary algorithm
SE (bps/Hz) Massive MIMO enabled with scalable
and flexible H-CRAN with three
logical layers - infrastructure layer,
control layer and application layer

rithms considering clustering of both RRHs and BBUs in the cloud are to
be developed. Efficient strategies for switching unnecessary RRHs and
BBUs into sleep mode is also essential for further improving EE. On the
other hand, integration of energy harvesting technology in both RRHs
and BBU pool can be considered for reducing the grid electricity con-
sumption. Optimal energy sharing mechanisms among the RRHs and
transmit power control considering tempo-spatial diversity in renew-
able energy generation and CSI availability, while satisfying the QoS
requirements can also be explored.
On the other hand, mobility management through location man-
agement and handoff management in C-RAN can be crucial for deliv-
ering services to the users in a timely and reliable manner. Tracking

Table 2
A summary of the reviewed papers on the throughput enhancement in C-RAN.
Research Area References
Throughput enhancement Duan et al. (2016)
He et al. (2016)
Li et al. (2017)
Rai et al. (2017)
Wang and Sun (2017)
Douik et al. (2016)
Al-Samman et al. (2016)
Cai et al. (2016)
Liu et al. (2015)
Solution Approach
Optimization and numerical
analysis
Numerical modeling and analysis
Numerical modeling and analysis
Greedy algorithms and numerical
analysis
Coalition Game approach
Optimization using graph
theoretical approach
Simulation based
Deterministic optimization
framework
Joint optimization
Performance Metric Main Feature
Achievable sum-rate (bit/channel) Cooperation based C-RAN has higher
throughput than that in ‘without
cooperation’
Throughput (bits/s/m2 ) and EE S-FFR and massive MIMO enabled
(bits/Joule) H-CRAN
Delay violation probability and An interference-aware a two-step
average throughput scheduling algorithm for delay
(packets/user/frame) sensitive applications
Throughput (Mbps) Resource scheduling scheme for
NOMA enabled C-RAN
Throughput (kbps) Mode selection and resource
allocation scheme in an uplink D2D
enabled C-RAN
Sum-rate (bps/Hz) Coordinated scheduling and power
control in C-RAN
Throughput (Mbps) TAJS resource virtualization
algorithm
Throughput (bit/s) Dynamic C-RAN operation framework
for MCC with outdated CSI
Fronthaul rate (Mbps) and end-to-end Joint power control and fronthaul
rate (bps/Hz) rate allocation for OFDMA-based
C-RAN

43
Md.F. Hossain et al.
Table 3
A summary of the reviewed papers on the interference management in C-RAN.
Research Area References
Interference management Liu et al. (2017)
Ma et al. (2018)
Ma et al. (2016)
Boulos et al. (2017)
Hajisami and Pompili
(2015)
Sun et al. (2016)
Qi and Wang (2017)
Zhang et al. (2015)
Al-Samman et al. (2017)
Peng et al. (2015b)
Peng et al. (2015c)
users’ location and handoff management with guaranteed connection
continuity in C-RAN is challenging as users can switch too frequently
among the RRHs. These functions become even more complex for multi-
cloud C-RANs and in scenario with flexible resource scheduling among
Table 4
A summary of the reviewed papers for enhancing EE in C-RAN.
Research Area References
Energy efficiency Li and Feng (2017)
Zhang et al. (2017)
Wang et al. (2018)
Yu et al. (2018)
Vu et al. (2018)
Ghods et al. (2017)
Zeng et al. (2017)
Lin et al. (2016)
Li et al. (2016)
Liu et al. (2018)
Chen et al. (2014)
Zhou et al. (2018)
Solution Approach
Optimization by formulating a
sparse MLE problem
Numerical modeling and analysis
Gradient optimization
Optimal and heuristic solutions
Heuristic algorithm
Heuristic algorithm
Heuristic algorithm
Theoretical framework and case
study
Heuristic algorithm
Heuristic algorithms
Sum-rate optimization
RRHs. Moreover, the centralized nature of C-RAN can impose additional
latency in performing these functions for a large number of devices.
Therefore, formulation of distributed solutions for mobility manage-
ment merits substantial research.
Solution Approach
Optimization schemes
Optimization scheme
Non-convex optimization based
on WMMSE
Heuristic algorithm
Iterative algorithm
Heuristic approach
Convex optimization
Optimization scheme
Optimization schemes
Optimization scheme
Optimization scheme
Designing framework and case
study
44
Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48
Performance Metric
Normalized MSE
MSE and BER
BER
Number of active BBUs, throughput
per user (Mbps) and EE (Mbps/W)
Outage probability, throughput
(Mbps) and system SE (bps/Hz/cell)
Social welfare, sum-rate (Mb/s) and
fairness
Throughput (Mbps)
SE of edge users (bps/cell/Hz)
Throughput (Mbps)
Sum-rate (bps)
Outage probability, BER and
aggregated rate (bps/Hz)
Performance Metric
EE (bits/joule/Hz) and SE
(bps/Hz)
EE (bit/Hz/J)
Energy consumption (J)
Energy consumption (kWh)
EE (Mb/J)
EE (nats/Hz/J) and per user
achievable average rate
(nats/sec/Hz)
Energy consumption (W)
QEE
EE (bits/Hz/joule), delay (slots)
and throughput (kbits/slot)
Network EE (Mbits/s/Joule)
Normalized transmit power,
power consumption (W) and
per-user throughput (bps/Hz)
EE (bits/Hz/Joule), transmit
power (W) and total rate
(b/s/Hz)
Main Feature
A CS-based joint NBI mitigation
and user data recovery technique
Distributed baseband signal
compressive quantization and PIC
for multi-antenna C-RAN
Optimize both downlink and
uplink transmissions for
mitigating IUI in TR based C-RAN
RRH clustering formulated as a
set partitioning problem
Dynamic clustering of VBSs based
on the locations of users
LACF game based dynamic
cooperation scheme
Interference-aware user
association scheme for H-CRAN
Cooperative interference
mitigation scheme using
JT CoMP based semi-dynamic
clustering for H-CRAN
Cooperative interference
mitigation scheme using
UWPA for H-CRAN
Contract-based framework for
mitigating inter-tier interference
in H-CRANs
Collaborative processing and
cooperative resource allocation in
H-CRAN
Main Feature
Outage-aware resource allocation
scheme for energy efficient
C-RAN under interference and
imperfect CSI at the transmitter
SDN-based user cooperation and
resource allocation scheme for
uplink C-RAN
Joint energy minimization and
resource allocation in C-RAN
with MCC
Dynamic resource provisioning
algorithm considering RAU sleep
scheduling and VM consolidation
Data-sharing and compression
strategies based EE maximization
Tunable downlink distance-based
power control mechanism
Incorporation of renewable
energy sources in C-RAN
Introduced the new performance
metric QEE
Energy efficient joint congestion
control and re-source scheduling
in H-CRAN
Energy efficient radio resource
management scheme for H-CRAN
Pre-coding scheme to increase EE
of H-CRAN
EE analysis of NOMA enabled
H-CRAN
Md.F. Hossain et al. Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48

Table 5
A summary of the reviewed papers focusing delay in C-RAN.
Research Area References
Delay Ren et al. (2018)
(Wang et al., 2015, 2017c)
Wu and Ghosal (2016)
Arfaoui et al. (2017)
Lien et al. (2015)
Xiang et al. (2015)
Hung et al. (2018)
Dai and Liu (2017)
Solution Approach Performance Metric Main Feature
Theoretical framework and case EC (b/s/Hz) and delay outage Introduced the concept of EC and
studies delay-constrained power allocation
schemes
Optimization Average delay (sec) An optimal delay-aware fronthaul
allocation scheme
Minimization approach Average delay and multiplexing Dynamic resource sharing technique for
gain delay minimization
Minimization using queuing System response time (ms) and Optimal BBU selection mechanism for the
concept throughput (Mbps) minimization of the execution delay of
user services
Theoretical framework and case Latency and SE A low-latency H-CRAN architecture
studies incorporating open-loop radio access,
information-bridled resource optimization
and social data cache-based
routing/paging
Lyapunov optimization approach Average queue length (bit/Hz) Tradeoff between EE and delay
and EE constraints in H-CRAN
Optimization Delay (sec) and violation A delay guaranteed proactive network
probability association mechanism for IMMs in
H-CRAN
Heuristic algorithm Delay (sec) and cache hit rate (%) A mobility-aware proactive caching
strategy for C-RAN

Table 6
A summary of the reviewed papers on C-RAN security.
Research Area References Solution Approach Performance Metric Main Feature
Security Wu et al. (2015) Theoretical framework N/A A new C-RAN architecture placing security
functions in the top most service plane
Tian et al. (2017) Literature survey N/A Review on the C-RAN security challenges and
research issues
Fang et al. (2018) Theoretical modeling N/A A new security architecture for C-RAN having
including a survey four security domains
You et al. (2014) Numerical modeling and Intercept and outage probabilities A three-phase transmission scheme and
analysis optimal RRH selection approach with a
tradeoff between security and reliability
performance
Yan and Wang (2014) Closed form expressions Secrecy transmission capacity (b/s/Hz) Physical layer security strategies for the
downlink of two-tier H-CRAN
Xu et al. (2017) Weighted Secrecy sum-rate (bit/s/Hz) and secrecy A novel channel quantization method for
Voronoi-diagram based rate loss (bit/s/Hz) security in downlink C-RAN with limited CSI
approach
Liu (2017) Closed form expressions SPSC Analysis of path-loss effects on the uplink
secrecy of C-RANs in the presence of
eavesdropper RRH
Rawat et al. (2012) Optimization Total benefit Geolocation aware radio resource
management algorithm for the security of CR
enabled C-RAN
Yang et al. (2017) Theoretical framework Resource utilization and network cost Introducing BTA architecture for C-RAN
and case study security

Various advanced technologies, such as massive MIMO, BF, CoMP,
CR, mmWave and M2M communications, full duplexing, NOMA, car-
rier aggregation, SDN and cooperative relaying can also be integrated
with C-RAN for further enhancing the performance. Only a few works
on C-RAN by incorporating some of these technologies are available to
date. Therefore, an extensive research effort is required in developing
and analysis of efficient and optimal schemes for exploiting these tech-
niques in C-RAN with the consideration of traffic distribution, heteroge-
neous energy sources, diversity in renewable energy generation, avail-
able radio resources and QoS requirements. Moreover, IoT is a reality,
which will be a part of future 5G networks. C-RAN has to find a way
how to support these massive number of IoT devices in its framework,
which is yet to be explored.
C-RAN inherits the security threats experienced by both the cloud
computing systems and wireless communication systems. Moreover,
due to the centralized operation of BBU cloud, one-point failure is
a major risk in C-RAN and hence, the security of C-RAN has to be
strictly maintained. With the potential of large number of intelligent
devices and nodes having self-configuring capabilities to be connected
in CRAN makes it even more vulnerable. In such scenarios, design of
novel efficient physical layer security techniques by exploiting the phys-
ical characteristics of wireless channels can be very effective in C-RAN.
Moreover, to date, a limited number of works, mainly on the physi-
cal layer security of C-RAN, have been reported in literature, which
demands a lot more investigation. Therefore, development of universal
C-RAN security frameworks, secure authentication mechanisms, user
privacy preservation mechanisms, and trust mechanisms among opera-
tors as well as between users and operators are the key areas of great
importance.
On the other hand, multi-tier H-CRANs incorporates cells of diverse
sizes and may involve both wired and wireless fronthaul links. Exis-
tence of heterogeneous fronthaul links opens new research problems
of designing various algorithms and schemes by jointly accounting
the wired links and wireless links. For instance, resource allocation

45
Md.F. Hossain et al. Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48

Table 7
A summary of the reviewed papers on system cost reduction in C-RAN.
Research Area References
System cost Wang et al. (2017b)
Lisi et al. (2017)
Tang et al. (2017)
Peng et al. (2017)
Wang et al. (2016)
Lin et al. (2017)
Zhong et al. (2017)
Suryaprakash et al.
(2015b)
Solution Approach
Numerical modeling and
analysis
Optimization using MILP
Optimization using MINLP
Iterative algorithm
Iterative algorithm
Linear programming with
two-phase approximations
Numerical modeling and
analysis
Numerical modeling and
analysis
Performance Metric Main Feature
Normalized TCO Techno-economic analysis finding that H-RAN
architecture has the lowest TCO
TCO (Euro) Determination of cost-effective migration
from D-RAN to C-RAN
System cost VM activation and sparse BF for cost
minimization with limited fronthaul capacity
ESE (bit/Hz/J), SE (bps/Hz) and Cost-efficient resource allocation scheme
sum-power (dBm) considering the cost of heterogeneous
fronthaul links
Cost A joint cost-effective resource allocation
scheme between C-RAN and MCC systems
Objective value Dynamic resource management mechanism
for improving the cost effectiveness
System cost, delay and throughput A C-RAN architecture incorporating both
C-RAN and traditional BSs with a tradeoff
among ASE, delay and system cost
Cost (MUSD) A new cost model incorporating the costs of
BSs, data center and the equipment in the
fronthaul links

and scheduling, inter-tier interference management, CoMP transmission
involving multi-tier RRHs, etc. become even more challenging, which
needs substantial attention. Designs considering multi-cloud H-CRANs,
where each cloud corresponds to a subset of RRHs, can also be interest-
ing for future research.
Furthermore, now-a-days, due to the better visualization of user
satisfaction through QoE metric, network operators are interested in
this approach of network provisioning instead of traditional QoS-based.
However, no comprehensive QoE model for C-RAN has been defined so
far. QoE assurance model for C-RAN and QoE guaranteed C-RAN design
can be a good area to explore.
In summary, C-RAN is going to transform the traditional distributed
cellular RAN into a centralized architecture, which has brought a whole
new dimension in the cellular system. From our extensive literature sur-
vey in C-RAN, it can be concluded that this field requires a huge effort in
conducting thorough, comprehensive and rigorous investigations before
practically realizing C-RAN systems.
11. Conclusions
In this paper, we have surveyed, discussed and summarized the most
recent works on the C-RAN systems. Unlike the other existing surveys
focusing on a specific area of C-RAN, this survey has looked on the
C-RAN in a holistic way for covering all the major research areas. In
particular, we have conducted extensive survey on the state-of-the-
art research works conducted on C-RAN and then summarized them
by categorizing into seven sections, namely, architectures, throughput
enhancement, interference management, EE, latency, security and sys-
tem cost reduction. We have also presented the open issues and future
research directions in these focused areas. Summaries of all the articles
reviewed in this paper have also been presented in Tables 1–7. Although
there are various proposed architectures for C-RAN, our survey have
identified that there are only few works in all the other areas covered
in this paper. Therefore, research in C-RAN is far from maturity, and
hence a huge research effort is required before finally standardizing
and implementing C-RAN in practice.
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Md. Farhad Hossain received his Ph.D. from the School of
Electrical and Information Engineering of the University of
Sydney, Australia in 2014. He completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in
Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) from Bangladesh
University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka,
Bangladesh in 2003 and 2005 respectively. Currently, he holds
a position of Professor in the Department of EEE, BUET. He
also works as an electrical and electronic engineering consul-
tant. Dr. Hossain has published over 60 refereed articles in
highly prestigious journals and conference proceedings. His
research interests include C-RAN, green cellular networks, sen-
sor networks, network architectures and protocols designs,
underwater communications and smart grid communications.
He has been serving as TPC member, and reviewer in many
international journals and conferences. He is currently a mem-
ber of IEEE and IEEE communication society.
48
Journal of Network and Computer Applications 139 (2019) 31–48
Ayman Uddin Mahin received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical
and Electronic Engineering (EEE) from Ahsanullah Univer-
sity of Science and Technology (AUST), Dhaka, Bangladesh
in 2016. He is currently pursuing his M.Sc. degree in EEE at
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET),
Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is also working as a lecturer in the
Department of EEE of AUST. His research interests include C-
RAN, 5G cellular networks, smart grid communications and
Internet of things (IoT).
Topojit Debnath received his B.Sc. in Electrical and Elec-
tronic Engineering (EEE) from Bangladesh University of Engi-
neering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is
currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering
at the University of California, Riverside, USA. His research
interests include study and simulation of nano electronics and
photonics devices, mobile cellular communication system and
5G network technology.
Farjana Binte Mosharrof received her B.Sc. degree in Elec-
trical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) from Ahsanullah Uni-
versity of Science and Technology (AUST), Dhaka, Bangladesh
in 2016. She is currently pursuing her M.Sc. degree in EEE at
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET),
Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her current research interests include C-
RAN based 5G cellular networks, energy efficient cellular net-
works and smart grid communications.
Khondoker Ziaul Islam is an Assistant Professor in the Elec-
trical and Electronic Engineering Department at Bangladesh
University of Business and Technology (BUBT), Dhaka,
Bangladesh. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from
Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Bangladesh in Elec-
trical Engineering, and now doing Ph.D. from Bangladesh
University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka,
Bangladesh. His current research interests include C-RAN, 5G
cellular networks, radio resource management and radio plan-
ning for cellular networks.