A conversation with Chih-Lin I, Chief Scientist, China Mobile
China Mobile has been at the forefront of C-RAN deployments and has a compelling vision of the role of C-RAN in the evolution of mobile networks to 5G. We had an in-depth conversation with Chih-Lin I, chief scientist at China Mobile, to talk about the present and future of C-RAN, in its multifaceted implementations – centralized, collaborative and cloud.
Chin-Lin sees C-RAN as part of what she calls the “revolutionary evolution of the RAN.”
“It is a journey. It is a path. It is not one destination or one solution or one stage. It’s multifaceted. You solve different challenges, and you get different sets of benefits. Then you go and you continue, and this can build up. Eventually, as far as 5G goes, this should be a starting point. It’s a starting, essential element of 5G,” Chin-Lin told us.
C-RAN brings operational and capital expenditure savings, but it also fundamentally changes the way mobile operators plan and operate their RAN. Chin-Lin believes C-RAN will make operators reconsider what in their networks should be centralized or distributed, how much reliability – how many nines – they need and how fast their networks will have to change to keep up with the competition from OTTs.
We also discussed the experience to date with C-RAN at China Mobile, how fronthaul requirements and availability have shaped C-RAN topologies, and how C-RAN can help manage interference and coordinate transmission in hetnet deployments with small cells. Finally, we discussed the role of C-RAN as an essential part of the NFV framework, and of the multiple functional split models that can be used as mobile operators transition from early C-RAN models to a fully-virtualized RAN.
This conversation is included in an updated version of the Senza Fili report “Charting the path to RAN virtualization: C-RAN, fronthaul and HetNets.” Download the report.
