5G Open RAN Evolution Path

RAN Functional Split Options for 5G 4G vs. 5G RAN

Transitioning to Open RAN RU Fronthaul DU Midhaul CU Protocols and Specifications
3GPP Specification 4G Advanced 5G New Radio (NR)
RF LOW- HIGH- LOW- HIGH- LOW- HIGH- PDCP UL
PHY PHY MAC MAC RLC RLC RRC
Service Data Adaption Protocol SDAP1: 3GPP TS 37.324

Radio Resource Control RRC: 3GPP TS 36.331 NR-RRC: 3GPP TS 38.331

Data

Traditional (Closed) RAN Open RAN OPTION 8 OPTION 7 OPTION 6 OPTION 5 OPTION 4 OPTION 3 OPTION 2 OPTION 1 Packet Data Convergence Protocol PDCP: 3GPP TS 36.323 NR-PDCP: 3GPP TS 38.323

Radio Link Control RLC: 3GPP TS 36.322 NR-RLC: 3GPP TS 38.322

Antenna
In traditional RAN, the radio hardware and 1 The Radio Unit (RU) is where the radio frequency Medium Access Control MAC: 3GPP TS 36.321 NR-MAC: 3GPP TS 38.321
software are proprietary and supplied by the 1 RU
signals are transmitted, received, amplified and LOW- HIGH- LOW- HIGH- LOW- HIGH- DL
same vendor. RF PHY PHY MAC MAC RLC RLC PDCP RRC Physical Layer PHY NR-PHY
digitized.
Split 7.2X RU Physical channels and modulation 3GPP TS 36.211 3GPP TS 38.211
Operators are limited to deploying proprietary Data
RAN hardware with vendor-defined interfaces.
2 The Distributed Unit (DU) is where the real-time (Standard split deployment) Multiplexing and channel coding 3GPP TS 36.212 3GPP TS 38.212

The software is tightly integrated with the baseband processing functions reside. Physical layer procedures 3GPP TS 36.213 3GPP TS 38.213 (control)
LAYER 1 FUNCTIONS LAYER 2 FUNCTIONS LAYER 3 FUNCTIONS
proprietary hardware. 3GPP TS 38.214 (data)
3 The Centralized Unit (CU), provides support for the Physical layer measurements 3GPP TS 36.214 3GPP TS 38.215

higher layers of the protocol stack and controls User Equipment (UE) radio 3GPP TS 36.101 3GPP TS 38.101-1: Part 1: Range 1 Standalo
multiple DUs (up to 100). transmission and reception 3GPP TS 38.101-2: Part 2: Range 2 Standalone

Evolution of RAN Component Split from 4G to 5G O-RAN 3GPP TS 38.101-3: Part 3: Range 1 and Range 2

Interworking operation with other radios radios

3GPP TS 38.101-4: Part 4: Performance

BBU 4G LTE HLS LLS O-RAN requirements

(Proprrietary)
Base Station (BS) radio 3GPP TS 36.104 3GPP TS 38.104

2 3 transmission and reception

Requirements for support of radio

DU CU 3GPP TS 36.133 3GPP TS 38.133
Open Fronthaul Open Midhaul PDCP CU O-CU High Layer Split resource management

Proprietary Fronthaul (eCPRI) (HLS) Physical layer; General description 3GPP TS 36.201 3GPP TS 38.201

Fiber Optic Cable (CPRI) F1 F1

Services provided by the physical

RLC CU layer
3GPP TS 36.302 3GPP TS 38.202

User Equipment (UE) procedures

MAC BBU O-DU 3GPP TS 36.304 3GPP TS 38.304
in idle mode

PHY-H Low Layer Split

Multi-RAT Co-Existence 3GPP TR 37.872: Supplementary uplink (SUL) and LTE-NR co-existence
DU
Edge + (LLS)
7.2X RU
RU
PHY-L Acronyms
CPRI Acronym/Abbreviation Description
RU O-RU
RF RRH ACLR Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio

Legend ACS Adjacent Channel Selectivity

AMF Access and Mobility Management Function

High-band 5G (mmWave) Evolution Path
24 GHz, 28 GHz, 37 GHz, 39 GHz and 47 GHz bands. AS Access Stratum

Mid-band 5G AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise

Sub-6 (1-6) GHz spectrum, ranging from 2.5 GHz, Delivering 5G with Low, Mid and High Band Spectrum BHR Backhaul Rate
3.5 GHz and 3.7 GHz to 4.2 GHz bands
BM-SC Broadcast Multicast Service Center
Low-band 5G
600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz and 900 MHz bands BS Base Station

BSS Business Support System

BW Bandwidth

BWP Bandwidth Part

CA Carrier Aggregation

CBRS Citizens Broadband Radio Service

CC Component Carrier

CoMP Coordinated Multipoint

CP Control Plane

Private wireless network Public wireless network CP-OFDM Cyclic Prefix-OFDM

CPRI Common Public Radio Interface

Private Entities Sports Facility Shopping Mall City Residential Area Train Station Airport Rural Area
CU Central Unit

CUPS Control and User Plane Seperation

CW Continuous Wave

DC Data Center

Transition from 4G to Open RAN Protocol Stack by Band Distribution DFT-s-OFDM Discrete Fourier Transform-spread-OFDM

DL Downlink

DN Data Network
Service Management 5G 5G 5G
DU Distributed Unit
and Orchestration (SMO) mmWave Sub-6 Mid-band
Framework eCPRI Enhanced Common Public Radio Interface

* Non-RT-RIC NG F1 eCPRI CPRI eMBB Enhanced Mobile Broadband

Radio-Link Management (Backhaul) (Midhaul) (Fronthaul) (Fronthaul) EN-DC E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity

{ {
{ {
SON
A1 A1 RF
RF RF RF RF EPC Evolved Packet Core
R Apps

RU RU
Load Balancing-Policy Layer 1

{
RU
EPS Evolved Packet System
Slicing PHY PHY Low-PHY
> 1 sec RU/DU
Policy Enforcement FDD Frequency Division Duplex
MAC DU MAC
FFT Fast Fourier Transform
Option 8
01 01 RLC RLC Option 7
RT-RIC RT-RIC FR Frequency Range

{
RAN intelligent Controller RAN intelligent Controller
Radio Site
PDCP gNB gNodeB (5G NR Base Station)
(RIC) (RIC)
CU
X Apps X Apps
RRC HLS Higher Layer Split

E2 E2 LDPC Low Density Parity Check

1-10 ms Layer 2
Radio Site Edge Cloud Regional Cloud
LLS Lower Layer Split

{ {
Fronthaul – FS-LL Backhaul Option 2 MAC Medium Access Control
Open CPRI | eCPRI | RoE
High-PHY PHY
RU vDU vCU NG
vRAN CPRI + Ethernet IP | Ethernet DU MBMS Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service
MAC DU MAC
Copyright © 2022 RADCOM Ltd | All rights reserved

MBMS-GW MBMS Gateway

Fronthaul – FS-LL Midhaul – FS-HL Backhaul RLC RLC
5G CPRI | eCPRI | RoE DU F1 vCU Multiple-Input
RU NG

{ { {
MIMO
RAN CPRI + Ethernet Ethernet IP | Ethernet Mobile PDCP PDCP PDCP Multiple-Output
Central Site
Core Core CU CU CU Layer 3 MME Mobility Management Entity
Backhaul RRC RRC RRC
Virtual RU DU vCU NG mMTC Massive Machine Type Communication
4G RAN IP | Ethernet Data Rate 10 Gbps 10 Gbps 100 Gbps 1 Tbps
Fronthaul

mmWave Millimeter-wave
(Fiber connection)
MN Master Node
Legacy RU BBU Latency < 10 ms < 5 ms < 200 us < 100 us
4G RAN NAS Non-Access Stratum
Distance 200-500 km 100-400 km < 20 km < 10 km
NB-IoT Narrow Band Internet of Things