Microsemi Announces Scalable Fronthaul Solution for 4G and 5G Mobile Networks

Microsemi Corporation, semiconductor solutions leader, has announced the release of a new mobile fronthaul solution. It is built on the DIGI-G4 range of Optical Transport Network (OTN) processors that allows high capacity fronthaul connectivity for converged 4G and 5G centralised radio access networks (C-RANs). The solution would break a new ground by extending 100G OTN into the RAN to simultaneously aggregate high density Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI), 10E and 25GE radio links. Besides, it has 10 times higher capacity and innovatively addresses the need for low latency with automatic link equalisation, and network security.

According to a market research firm, the C-RAN deployments will grow annually at 23% through 2020, representing more than 60% of all 4G RAN deployments in that time duration. Furthermore, as mobile operators continue to add new LTE-A features, the CPRI interconnect between distributed radios and centralised baseband needs to scale by a factor of 4 times to a 10G rate. With the transition from 4G to 5G, fronthaul connections need to be scaled up to 200Gbps, driven by dense 25 GE Ethernet links from 5G radio heads.

Microsemi Announces Scalable Fronthaul Solution for 4G and 5G Mobile Networks

“C-RAN is becoming the go-to network architecture as mobile operators address the need for increased capacity, but until now the lack of a cost-effective and fiber-efficient approach to building fronthaul networks impeded the industry’s transition to C-RAN,” said Babak Samimi, vice president and business unit manager of Microsemi’s communications business unit. “With the ecosystem continuing to cost-optimize 100G optics, in addition to the unique innovations integrated in our DIGI-G4, Microsemi has put forward a compelling answer to the fronthaul networking challenge that not only delivers on the significant increase in optical capacity needed, but allows operators to drive C-RAN deployments anchored on a unified architecture that allows for a seamless transition from 4G to 5G.”

Microsemi’s DIGI-based mobile fronthaul solution delivers a wide range of unique innovations, like :

● Extending 100G OTN and enabling link security into fronthaul

● Future-proof radio protocol support

● High performance fronthaul networking

● Patent-pending automatic per link latency management and equalization

Contrary to the conventional wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) solutions, Microsemi’s DIGI-G4 OTN fronthaul architecture allows for the aggregation of multiple 4G or 5G radio links into 100G OTN connections. This aids in delivering up to 10 times the capacity scaling over existing optical infrastructure. The platform is differentiated with an embedded optical link security engine, integrated patent-pending real-time link latency equalisation and simultaneous support for 4G CPRI and 5G ethernet protocols.