C-RAN Availability Improvement Using Parallel Hybrid FSO/mmW 5G Fronthaul Network

New innovation approach called - centralized radio access network (Cloud-RAN or C-RAN)- architecture is developed to meet the explosive growth in mobile traffic in 5G mobile networks especially in the need of high-speed, high capacity, real-time data, and high-reliability. In C-RAN architecture, fronthaul networks connect between the radio units called -Remote Radio Heads (RRHs)- and the processing unit called -Base Band Processing Unit (BBU)-. Recently, hybrid free space optics (FSO) and millimeter waves (mmW) network is considered to be a promising solution that can match with the requirements of 5G fronthaul networks. In this paper, hybrid FSO/mmW links at each RRH is proposed to enhance the performance of C-RAN fronthaul network at various weather conditions. The performance of hybrid FSO/mmW technology as a fronthaul network is evaluated at different weather conditions and compared to other technologies. The numerical results reveal that improvements are obtained in network reliability using hybrid FSO/mmW fronthaul network, especially at severe weather conditions.