Resource Allocation in Passive Optical Networks for Low-Latency Mobile Fronthauling Services

Passive Optical Network (PON) technology offers a cost-effective alternative to support Beyond 5G Mobile Network Fronthauling (MFH). However, MFH dimensioning for such networks is challenging, given its high bandwidth and strict latency requirements. The Functional Split of the Radio Access Network (RAN) has been introduced to provide flexibility in resource allocation and reduce these requirements. In contrast to the conventional MFH requirement of RF-PHY splitting, the MFH traffic produced by high-layer splittings depends on the actual user traffic load. This dependency causes patterns of spatiotemporal variation in MFH traffic due to the daily movements of mobile users. This paper introduces a resource allocation mechanism that capitalizes on the spatiotemporal imbalance of mobile traffic to reduce the bandwidth required to support the RAN functional splitting over PONs. The results show that the proposed scheme offers higher bandwidth utilization, resulting in lower upstream delays compared to the baseline mechanisms.