According to ABI Research, centralised or cloud radio access-based networks (C-RAN) is gaining momentum among operators worldwide. Players across markets are actively supporting C-RAN structure and network virtualisation to address issues regarding increasing deployment cost.
As per the research firm, China Mobile plans to rollout C-RAN to save 30 to 50 per cent in capex and opex. Similarly, a large number of operators in East Asia are also investing in C-RAN networks. In fact, the rollout of C-RAN networks gained pace in 2013 with leading Korea-based operators, SK Telecom and KT implementing centralised base station architectures for their long term evolution (LTE) networks. In October 2013, SK Telecom collaborated with Intel to develop a virtualised RAN structure. In 2013, NTT DOCOMO one of the dominant player in Japan also firmed up its plan to roll out C-RAN-based LTE-A network.
The research firm states that growth notwithstanding in the C-RAN market the major challenge for global adoption of C-RAN is high front haul requirements of operators. Transferring large amounts of data from distributed Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) to a central processing location requires extremely high bandwidth and low latency fibre links which is a part of the mobile network. Globally, such networks remain underdeveloped in most regions outside East Asia.
However, challenges notwithstanding, ABI Research forecasts that in 2014 half of the RRH shipments will be LTE and by 2018, the total number of RRH shipments will amount to more than 2 million units. Further, gradual growth and development in infrastructure submarkets like RRH equipment and fronthaul solutions and small cells will drive growth of the C-RAN networks.
