A conversation with Marquis Dorais, Fronthaul Product Line Manager, T&D Metro / Access Business Unit, EXFO
The below is only a summary. Download a transcript of the complete interview and the complete in depth report “C-RAN and 5G take transport to new capacity and latency levels. Trends in backhaul, fronthaul, xhaul and mmW”.
The need for fronthaul keeps growing as operators move to C-RAN topologies. Along with the widening deployment of fronthaul, there is a need to test and validate fronthaul links. I talked about this with Marquis Dorais, Fronthaul Product Line Manager at EXFO.
The demand for fronthaul to remote locations increasing with C-RAN deployments today and 5G in the future. “Today, CPRI rates are designed to support up to 24.3 Gbps of RF data capacity, not on the IP side but on the CPRI side. … There is going to be a need for faster fronthaul and backhaul speeds. On the fronthaul itself, today it’s mostly going up to 10 Gbps. With the eventual move toward 5G, the fronthaul will move to 25 Gbps, 50 Gbps, even 100 Gbps, so extremely fast protocol data rates running on the fronthaul portion,” Marquis said.
The increasing capacity and latency requirements will trigger a new approach to fronthaul. Marquis told us, “We know that eventually the RAN equipment will adopt a communication protocol that’s a lot more flexible in transporting the information to the RRH. Eventually, we foresee an evolution towards Ethernet fronthaul.”
We will discuss this topic further in an exclusive webinar in December 13. Register for the webinar.
