Fujitsu Announces Smart CPRI Transport for Mobile Fronthaul

Fujitsu announced the availability of its Smart CPRI Transport solution designed to support advanced Centralized Radio Access Network (C-RAN) fronthaul deployments.

The Centralized Radio Access Network (C-RAN) solution contains a smart WDM system with integrated diagnostics, remote visibility, self-healing functionality, and ultralow latency. It provides CPRI fronthaul transport between remote radio heads (RRHs) on cellular towers and centralized baseband units (BBUs).

Fujitsu said its highly scalable architecture transports up to 80 CPRI channels via CWDM/DWDM over a fiber pair, while facilitating easy operation and maintenance. The solution can be configured for point-to-point, linear chain, point-to-multipoint, or ring network topologies. It utilizes a remote terminal connected to each RRH and one or more aggregators connected to BBUs residing at a BBU hotel, central office, or super macrocell site. In partnership with HFR, Inc., Fujitsu is supplying Smart CPRI Transport products in North America.

Three modular chassis are available:

• The HSN8100NA is a remote terminal. The 2U shelf has two service slots and supports up to eight CPRI channels.
• The HSN8300NA can function as either a remote terminal or a midsize aggregator. The 4U shelf has six service slots and supports up to 24 CPRI channels.
• The HSN8500NA is a high-capacity aggregator. The 8U shelf has 20 service slots and supports up to 80 CPRI channels.
• Carriers can use the Fujitsu NETSMART 1500 to simplify network management, provisioning, and surveillance. With the adoption of cloud-based architectures, the Smart CPRI Transport solution positions the RAN for SDN and the BBUs for virtualization, providing enhanced visibility into the RAN through a self-optimizing network (SON).

Some additional highlights of the solution:

• Easy installation. Integrated engineering and installation tools reduce installation and maintenance expenses. Internal BERT, loopback, and distance measurement functions improve installation velocity. Optional FEC overcomes fiber impairments for substandard fiber pathways.
• Easy upgrades. Pluggable optics simplify upgrades from CPRI service interface options 3 and 5 to CPRI option 7. Carriers can minimize capital expenses by reprovisioning transponders for new CPRI rates.
• Fault detection. Extensive OAM for centralized remote visibility identifies alarm locations and distinguishes between radio and transport network faults, reducing MTTR, test equipment, and truck rolls. Custom threshold alerts enable proactive fault resolution before service is affected.
• High reliability. Self-healing network operation for ring or diverse linear paths provides sub-50 millisecond protection switching. Integrated differential delay compensation maintains in-service calls upon protection switches. These network resiliency features provide five 9s availability and reduce customer churn.

“Carriers are seeking better ways to cost-effectively address the performance of next-generation mobile networks,” said Steve Pelosi, vice president and head of the Optical Business Unit, Fujitsu Network Communications. “Fujitsu Smart CPRI Transport is a proven, highly scalable solution that optimizes fronthaul network design for a C-RAN architecture — reducing operating costs and improving network reliability.”

http://www.fujitsu.com/us/about/resources/news/press-releases/2016/fnc-20160317-02.html