© TransPacket AS

WHITE PAPER
5G Ethernet X-Haul
June 2018
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Executive Summary

The concept of Ethernet X-Haul is being discussed extensively in the mobile industry in connection with
5G. The idea is to have an Ethernet based converged transport network serving multiple purposes
including fronthaul and backhaul. This white paper presents the RAN architectures under consideration
for 5G, and their consequences in terms of requirements for the transport network. It further describes
how an innovative Ethernet scheduling mechanism is required to support deterministic Ethernet, and to
fully achieve an 5G Ethernet X-Haul. The white paper is also introducing two use cases, namely Ethernet
Crosshaul, and Indoor Coverage, which demonstrate the added value of deterministic Ethernet for mobile
transport applications.

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1. Introduction
5G is the latest mobile generation that covers all the technologies required to meet ITU IMT-2020
requirements, where three main classes of use cases have been identified: enhanced mobile broadband
(EMBB) offering higher throughput, massive machine type communication (MMTC) offering high mobility
and high connection density, and ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) offering (near) real-
time support. To be able to serve the wide variety of applications coming from those three classes of use
cases, a change in the radio access network (RAN) is required, all the way from the air interface to the
packet core and the transport network.

This white paper focuses on the RAN transport network, and in particular on the mobile fronthaul that is
a key enabler for the mobile transport network for 5G. There is a consensus in the industry that fronthaul
network will be based on Ethernet, and several forums and standardization bodies, e.g. CPRI and IEEE
1914, are redefining the fronthaul network towards a packet-based architecture. Even though the goal is
to define a multipoint-to-multipoint Ethernet switched network for fronthaul, most of the existing studies,
prototypes, and pre-commercial deployments include a “network” that is implemented as a dedicated
point-to-point Ethernet link. Some of the main technical reasons for this first stage solution are the well-
known quality of service (QoS) issues connected to Ethernet switching, namely latency, latency variation
and time and frequency synchronization.

This white paper highlights how available technology from TransPacket adding deterministic QoS
mechanisms to Ethernet can be used in order to design a truly switched Ethernet fronthaul network
meeting the strict requirements of latency, latency variation, and synchronization of fronthaul traffic. The
ability to deploy fronthaul over a switched Ethernet infrastructure offers the possibility to carry fronthaul
services together with midhaul, backhaul, and fixed access services over the same Ethernet transport
infrastructure, achieving what is commonly referred to as an X-Haul network.

2. RAN Architecture and Transport Network Requirements

Figure 1 illustrates main RAN architectures. It shows the introduction of the fronthaul network, originally
described as a centralized-RAN (C-RAN), where Remote Radio Heads (RRH) are connected to a
Baseband Unit (BBU) pool in a Central Office or Data Centre through high bandwidth transport links
running typically the Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI). Because of the challenging capacity and
latency requirements, CPRI-based fronthaul is most often deployed over dark fiber or WDM solutions.
Those solutions for fronthaul meet the performance requirements of today’s 4G/LTE networks, but for
many Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), these are too expensive and inefficient for 5G.

Figure 1 - RAN Architectures

The third architecture, referred to as Cloud-RAN (C-RAN), is based on a) enabling different functional
splits by centralizing higher layers of baseband processing functionalities while maintaining lower layers
of baseband functions in the RRHs, b) virtualizing higher layers of baseband functions to be run on general

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purpose servers in remote data centers, and c) an Ethernet-based fronthaul. Both the functional split and
the Ethernet fronthaul impact the RAN transport network, and are addressed further in the next sections.

2.1 Functional Split

In order to ease the strict requirements in terms of bandwidth and latency on the fronthaul, a number of
alternative functional splits of the baseband functionalities have been proposed and discussed by the
industry. Eight options have been studied – where option 8 aligns with what is known as CPRI. There is
no one-fits-all split, and the “optimal” split depends on a number of technical and business parameters
like network topology, availability of fibers, number of users, volumes of services, etc. In order to be able
to address this variety of scenarios, and at the same time to limit the number of options to reduce
complexity and deployment cost, 3GPP has proposed to support two splits: a high-level split, and a low-
level split.

The high-level split means that real time processing is performed by the Remote Radio Head, relaxing the
requirements of bandwidth and latency, but making inter RRHs coordination in connection with e.g.
Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) more challenging. The low-level split implies keeping low-complexity
and low-cost RHHs, and centralizing more functionality in the BBU. But unlike the traditional (CPRI)
functional split, the data throughput is variable and proportional to the user data rate. The interface for
the low-level split is time sensitive, and strict latency control is required.

IEEE 1914 has defined a model for the functional splits by introducing three logical block functions: Radio
Unit (RU), Distributed Unit (DU), and Centralized Unit (CU). Those functions can be distributed between
the antenna site and the central office site as illustrated in Figure 2. The placement of the building block
defines different networks, namely fronthaul, midhaul and backhaul, with different requirements in terms
of latency, capacity, and maximum reach.

Figure 2 - RAN Functional Splits

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The fronthaul network has a very strict latency requirement (under 100 µs) driven by the infrastructure1.
But it is important to remember that even if a high-level split is used (implying a more relaxed latency
requirement on the transport network from the infrastructure perspective), 5G is promising to serve
applications with very low latency (down to 1 ms), and these time-sensitive applications will still demand
a low latency transport network.

In addition, as mentioned earlier, there will not be a single split, and the transport network will have to
support a mix of splits with both time-sensitive and less time-sensitive/time-insensitive traffic. This
calls for Deterministic Ethernet in the mobile transport network with the capability to support a mix
of traffic carrying fronthaul, midhaul, and backhaul services.

5G is foreseen to address a wide range of applications, with, to some extent, conflicting requirements.
As MNOs cannot afford to build several dedicated transport networks to carry those services, there is a
need for supporting all services over a common infrastructure. This calls for Network Slicing, which
enables to dedicate a “slice” of the physical network to deliver the required KPIs for a set of applications
while being completely isolated from (i.e. not affected by) other slices.

2.2 Ethernet Fronthaul

Ethernet fronthaul requires encapsulation of the radio signal in an Ethernet frame. There are two
competing standards for encapsulating fronthaul traffic in an Ethernet frame: a) eCPRI from the CPRI
consortium, and b) Radio over Ethernet (RoE) from the IEEE 1914.3 Working Group. While the
encapsulations themselves are different, the principle is similar in both cases, and they both require low
delay and low packet delay variation (PDV). Indeed, to ensure correct processing of the encapsulated
data, a steady stream without PDV is required. In practice, the PDV can be removed by a playout buffer
at the receiver side with the minimum buffer size equal to or greater than the peak PDV. However, this
requires knowledge of the maximum delay and peak PDV to dimension the network.

The challenge with Ethernet is that packet delay and delay variation is dependent on traffic load. The TSN
standard for fronthaul (IEEE 802.1CM) includes a mechanism (IEEE Qbu) to preempt low priority traffic in
favor of high priority fronthaul traffic but does not include deterministic scheduling of multiple fronthaul
streams. The current TSN scheduling mechanisms (IEEE 802.1Qbv, IEEE 802.1Qch) targeting industrial
automation applications were not deemed suitable for fronthaul, and have not been included in the IEEE
802.1CM standard. There is, therefore, a need for additional scheduling mechanisms in order to support
a deterministic Ethernet-based network for fronthaul.

Deterministic scheduling is required for aggregation purposes. In 5G, the need for more capacity and the
use of high-frequency bands (and their smaller coverage) will drive densification. As building new macro
sites is expensive and complex in terms of both space requirements and environmental impact,
densification will lead to a significant increase of small cells. It is projected that in busy areas, e.g.
downtown of major cities, there will be small cells at every block to support 5G services. This clearly
creates a need for aggregation and Ethernet switching as it is unlikely that connecting every single
small cell via dedicated fiber to the vBBU is a scalable and economic model.

1
For the fronthaul, the strict latency (under 100 µs) is driven by the HARQ protocol.

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3. FUSION
TransPacket has developed and patented a technology, FUSION, which enables MNOs to design and
deploy Ethernet X-haul networks. The focus of the technology is to minimize the packet delay and delay
variation even in the presence of multiple traffic sources.

3.1 Concept

The key concept relies on preserving packet gaps for priority traffic, and to take advantage of the inter-
packet gaps between high priority packets to transport low priority packets. FUSION also enables the
aggregation and convergence of multiple fronthaul, midhaul, and backhaul streams in the same network.
FUSION achieves ultra-low PDV in the range on nanoseconds for fronthaul, and enables the multiplexing
of midhaul and backhaul traffic over the same transport network. These characteristics are achieved by
implementing the following scheduling features:

• Deterministic aggregation: the capability to aggregate several fronthaul streams with low and
fixed delay.

• Deterministic priority: the capability to statistically multiplex lower priority traffic, e.g. midhaul
and backhaul traffic, with no impact on fronthaul streams

3.2 How it works

The FUSION scheduler adds a fixed delay to the fronthaul traffic at each node. This enables the look
ahead for identifying gaps within this fronthaul stream, and filling/inserting less delay sensitive
backhaul/midhaul packets only in fitting gaps. Theoretically, no PDV is induced on the fronthaul stream
of packets. Considering backhaul traffic on 100Gb/s links, with MTU of 1500 bytes, the delay is equal to
144 ns, and corresponds to 122 ns, the transmission time of a lower priority packet MTU at the transport
interface plus 20 ns, the fixed processing time. While all packets experience this delay, i.e. even if there
is no backhaul packet to be transmitted, this enables a fixed PDV per node which simplifies the network
and PDV buffer dimensioning challenges for the carrier.

FUSION scheduling provides a clear advantage regarding fronthaul traffic performance isolation: delay
and delay variation of the fronthaul traffic streams are independent of the number of midhaul/backhaul
traffic streams, and of the number of transport switching nodes. The deterministic priority enables to add
backhaul traffic at any point in the future. The small delay added by FUSION comes with the advantage
of a seamless network upgrade/change, ensuring that the fronthaul peak PDV does not change. The PDV
playout buffer size can thus be dimensioned for the maximum number of fronthaul streams that the
network shall aggregate. In addition, FUSION can also support a PTP stream with ultra-low PDV enabling
accurate synchronization of the mobile nodes in a fronthaul network.

3.3 Key features

• Low and Ultra-low Latency

FUSION transfers high priority streams unaltered, including gaps, and is, therefore, able to
achieve low latency with ultra-low Packet Delay Variation (PDV) for those streams.

• Multi-service support
FUSION transfers lower priority by using the gaps within the high priority streams. FUSION is
therefore able to support both high- and low-priority streams simultaneously, while making sure
low priority streams do no impact performance (loss, delay, and PDV) of the priority streams,
achieving therefore “soft” slicing of the Ethernet transport network

• Network Slicing and Hard isolation

FUSION is able to aggregate several high priority streams while conserving their performance (in
terms of loss, delay and delay variation) by creating a “virtual wavelength” per high priority stream.
It means that the high priority streams are isolated from each other’s, and FUSION achieves
“hard” slicing and QoS isolation of the Ethernet transport network.

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4. Deployment Scenarios
4.1 Ethernet Crosshaul

One of the major concerns of mobile operators is to keep the Ethernet fronthaul simple, and to ensure
that the support of deterministic behavior does not lead to a significant increase of their operational cost
due the complexity of configuration of mechanisms that depend on too many factors, e.g. topology, load,
traffic type, and traffic variation. In IEEE 1914.1, there is an on-going discussion (initiated by MNOs) about
defining classes of Ethernet transport nodes for fronthaul, associated with a given upper value for
processing time. The objective is to have a fixed value, independent of traffic type and load, in order to
simplify the network design, and network upgrade/change. Providing fixed delay Ethernet switching for
time-sensitive traffic (fronthaul) is one of FUSION key added value. In addition, the ability to add/drop
fronthaul and backhaul/midhaul traffic to existing deployment without impacting the deployed
fronthaul services is another key added value of the FUSION scheduler, which therefore addresses the
MNO requirements for simplicity, and ease of design.
Figure 3 presents the use case for Ethernet transport of fronthaul and backhaul, also known as crosshaul,
where a converged transport network is used to integrate both fronthaul and backhaul together with
internet access services for both residential and business subscribers. It illustrates how FUSION
switching and scheduling IP Core technology is able to support deterministic Ethernet as required by a
fully converged mobile transport network. Using FUSION IP Cores, fronthaul traffic from e.g. RoE and
eCPRI streams can be aggregated with low and bounded delay, and can be switched with fixed and low
delay through the network. The spare capacity in the path is then utilized for lower priority traffic such as
midhaul and backhaul, without affecting the timing of the fronthaul traffic streams.

Figure 3 - Ethernet Crosshaul

4.2 Indoor Coverage

In the recent years, indoor coverage has become a challenge for many MNOs. As 80% of all mobile
communications are made indoor, most mobile customers, and especially business mobile customers,
expect full indoor coverage. New building rules and new materials have made wall penetration more
difficult, and the use of new spectrum (higher frequency) in 5G will make indoor coverage even more
challenging. There is, therefore, a need to deploy indoor specific solutions to make sure that indoor
coverage is indeed acceptable.

The existing solutions for indoor coverage have been either Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) used for
large premises such as stadium or shopping mall, or Small Cells for smaller locations. DAS often requires
a dedicated infrastructure, and the costs and complexity of the installation do not scale down enough for

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smaller premises. Ethernet-based Small Cells offer the possibility to re-use existing LAN (Ethernet)
infrastructure and to minimize CAPEX investment.

FUSION takes this model one step further by allowing MNOs to deploy simpler and more cost-effective
radio units (implementing a low split), and having either a combined DU/CU in the basement, or a DU in
the basement, and a CU at a remote location serving several locations. It provides the opportunity to
share a single Ethernet infrastructure within a building to support both fixed and mobile networks reducing
OpEx even further.

As illustrated in Figure 4, hard slicing support enabled by FUSION allows several MNOs to share the
infrastructure. This opens up for new business models, and therefore a broader market, where the
property owner can share the investment, the risk, and the benefits with one or several MNOs. Supporting
multi-operators on the same fronthaul infrastructure is an enabler for new businesses in indoor
coverage markets.

Figure 4 - Indoor Coverage

5. Summary
Ethernet is already the de facto standard for backhaul and it is becoming the solution of choice for
fronthaul as well. While Ethernet is used as a switched technology in the backhaul, Ethernet usage
in the fronthaul has been limited to dedicated point-to-point connections. This is due to Ethernet
well-known QoS shortcomings in terms of latency, latency variation, and synchronization.

FUSION IP Cores from TransPacket constitute the missing building block, unique in the market,
which enables equipment provider to design and build Ethernet equipment to support an Ethernet
switched X-Haul targeting the 5G transport network and the new 5G use cases.

Yet, as usual in the telecom industry, there will be a mix of mobile technologies deployed at the same
time requiring transport capabilities for backhaul, midhaul, legacy fronthaul (CPRI, OBAI), and
Ethernet fronthaul. That is the reality for MNOs that need to make sure it all interoperates as
seamlessly as possible, and with the highest performance possible. FUSION is a key technology that
enables a truly converged deterministic Ethernet infrastructure for backhaul, midhaul, fronthaul and
fixed services transport.

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