The transmission network for 5G: fiber optic is the future of 5G

 

It is kown that the theme of MWC and OFC conferences this year is to prepare the transmission network for the upcoming 5G. The current industry consensus is Extensive deployment of 5G will begin in 2020. But 5G NR is still in the early stages of standardization, so preparing for 5G can be tricky.

 

With the continuous changes of 5G wireless standard, what measures can network operators take to lay the foundation for 5G transmission network? The good news is that at least 5G's path at the physical level is clear: fiber optics will be the basis of 5G networks, and centralized RAN (c-ran) will be the architecture of 5G networks.

 

C-ran was introduced by 4G (commercial deployment is now expanding) and adds a new transmission segment to the mobile network. With c-ran, the radio unit remains in the base tower, but the baseband processing unit (BBUs) is moved from the cell tower to the central office in order to communicate with each other and with other components.

 

 

Using the standard CPRI protocol, the distance between the tower and BBUs can be up to 20 km.