Flexible Deployment with FHGW
A Fronthaul Gateway can connect multiple RUs to one DU, enabling a single CUDU to cover a larger area and reducing investment in CUDU and servers. Each Fronthaul Gateway can link a maximum of 8 O-RUs to a DU, expanding coverage by up to 8 times. Moreover, cascading two Fronthaul Gateways enables 16 O-RUs to connect to one DU, increasing coverage by up to 16 times. When UEs in the coverage area stay within the capacity of the CUDU, Fronthaul Gateway helps lowering the investment in CUDU and servers.
The coverage area of RUs connecting to the same Fronthaul Gateway belongs to the same mobile cell, eliminating the need for cell handover when UEs move between RU coverage areas. This reduction in handover events decreases the workload on CUDU and core networks, lowering requirements and costs for CUDU servers. Particularly beneficial for applications such as drone patrols and indoor autonomous vehicle surveillance, which reduces the overall cost of 5G network deployment.
Flexible Deployment with FHGW
LIONS’ FHGW and O-RU combination offers flexibility for various phases of network deployment. The FHGW’s multiplexing capability expands the radio coverage of a cell through multiple RU connections and FHGW cascading.
LIONS’ solution offers the following configurations for private network deployment:
Basic: Designed for Proof of Concept (PoC) or initial deployment, this configuration allows for minimal investment and provides coverage for small areas with just one RU.
Indoor and outdoor integration: The FHGW can seamlessly provide coverage for both indoor and outdoor environments within a single cell, as long as the number of UEs remains within the BBU capacity, which is 128 for active UEs and 400 for registered UEs.
The combination of Fronthaul Gateways and Indoor RUs creates a 5G Digital Indoor System, ideally suited for indoor areas with partitions, signal interference, and moderate UE density. This system enhances 5G indoor coverage quality while simultaneously reducing network costs. Particularly suitable for larger indoor spaces with moderate UE usage, such as smart factories, public areas of hospitals, large retail stores, and event venues. Additionally, the system’s capacity can be easily expanded by adjusting the wiring of Fronthaul Gateways to DUs in the datacenter, without the hassle of rewiring multiple RUs.
Fronthaul Gateway is well-suited for large or belt-region outdoor coverage areas with a low number of UEs, making it ideal for applications such as unmanned aerial vehicle monitoring, robot monitoring, and self-driving vehicle test sites. It is also applicable to monitoring and applications in areas such as railways, roads, rivers, and embankments. By combining Fronthaul Gateway with outdoor RUs and external sectorized antennas, it is possible to create continuous or discontinuous irregular 5G coverage areas to support these special outdoor application scenarios.
Fronthaul Gateway offers the flexibility to connect both Indoor and Outdoor RUs simultaneously, making it a versatile solution for early 5G private network deployments. In the early stages of network deployment with few UEs, a single CUDU and server can effectively connect to Indoor and Outdoor RUs through Fronthaul Gateway, accommodating various application scenarios and experiments. As the number of applications and UEs increases, the computing power of the CUDU can be scaled up, and the wiring of RUs and Fronthaul Gateway can be adjusted to change the network’s topology. This scalability and adaptability enable Fronthaul Gateway to support a flexible and scalable network infrastructure, ensuring optimal performance as the network grows and evolves.
Coverage-Centric Approach: Utilizing a cascaded setup of two FHGW units optimizes radio coverage and enhances the number of RUs connected to a single cell. With two cascaded FHGW units, one cell can accommodate up to 16 RUs, provided that the number of UEs remains within the cell’s capacity.
Density-Centric Approach: As bandwidth demand increases, administrators have the flexibility to reduce the number of RUs connected to the FHGW and enhance the BBU’s cell support from 1 to 2.
Both strategies enable greater density support for 5G RAN with minimal hardware investment.