Steve Penticost discussed 5G fronthaul at OFC, exploring the role of Ethernet and passive WDM in next-gen access networks.

1. Solving the 5G fronthaul challenge
with Ethernet and passive WDM
Steve Penticost, VP, global business development, ADVA
Market Watch Panel 5:
Next-gen access networks

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2
Fiber-connected radio sites are expected to increase significantly
How important will optics be for 5G?
Microwave Fiber Copper
?
Antenna Baseband unit

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What is the RAN evolution for 5G?
Latency requirements are tough…
Transport becomes trickier, but Ethernet helps
EPC
Backhaul
Carrier Ethernet
BBU
RRH
4G/LTE RAN
Fronthaul
CPRI
5G RAN
RU 5GC
Backhaul
Carrier Ethernet
(NG/Xn, S1/X2)
Midhaul
Ethernet
(F1)
Fronthaul
eCPRI/Eth
(Fx)
DU CU
Disaggregation
40-200km
<10ms
20-40km
1-2ms
0-10km
25-200µs

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No silver bullet – but what are the optical layer options?
Best latency Highest capacity per
fiber and low latency
TDM-PON
Grey point-
to-point links DWDM
Best-effort traffic only
Pragmatic approach needed …

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ADVA’s G.metro solution covers the bases
Remote monitoring
Transparent communication channel,
independent of host equipment
...
Fiber assurance
ALM monitoring for highest network
availability and minimum MTTR
Any host equipment
ADVA or third-party equipment
Automatic self-tuning SFP+
Zero-touch provisioning, minimum
set-up time, human errors and spares
Complete suite of filters
Compact filters for efficient use of fiber
resources and rack space
Indoor and outdoor
Filters and plugs for operation in
controlled and hardened environments
10G & 25G
Today …

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Capability of single wavelength
Trade-off and “area of interest”
Terminal/plug … modulation formats and performance
Capacity per λ (Gbit/s)
Link budget (dB)
Reach (km)
10 20 30 40 50
10
100
50
5
10
15
20
Legend
NRZ
PAM4/DMT
Coherent
C-band O-band

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(Lite) coherent for metro edge and mobile x-haul
Hub location
CU/DU/BBU/router
etc.
Edge/remote sites
Coherent plug options …
• 100Gbit/s
• 200Gbit/s
• 400Gbit/s
Simplified coherent
required
Relative short
reach
Latency
constraint
Cost & fiber
shortage
Density &
power

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So what does all this mean?
Pragmatic approach to
building these
networks
Ethernet makes our
lives easy ☺
Standards to set the
baseline and consider
transport
Latency becomes
increasingly important
Disaggregation in RAN
is future proof
Transport layer know-
how is key to providing
turn-key solution

9. Thank you
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