Software-Defined Radio Enabled Cloud Radio Access Network Implementation Using OpenAirInterface

Towards enabling 5G and beyond radio access technologies to meet the requirements for continuous dynamic and diverse services, flexibility and scalability of the cellular network are of utmost important. In part, the revolution in information technology is craving way to the realization of the desired flexibility and scalability through advancement in softwarization and virtualization technologies. To this end, radio access networks (RAN) can be softwarized by employing appropriate virtualization techniques and open-source platforms to develop prototypes, which can be directed at fostering further mobile network research activities. In this paper, we provide a review of OpenAirInterface (OAI) implementation and present an OAI based cloud RAN (C-RAN) testbed with which mobile fronthaul (MFH) solutions can be tested. Furthermore, transmission of real-time radio signals over a passive optical network (RFoPON) is demonstrated. While successful transmission is achieved, the preliminary results show that the performance of C-RAN is limited by the delay overhead requirement of the passive optical network.