VIAVI 5G Fiber Testing Challenges

5G & Fiber

Deployment Challenges

Hassan Dayfallah
Technical Director – Middle East & Africa
May 2022

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Extreme Fiber Growth

→ 5G will deliver symmetric OTA speeds of 1 to 10Gbps and latency ≤ 1ms
→ 5G NR Radios will have 10G/25G Front haul interfaces
→ 20x to 30x more small cells are expected, most with fiber links, driving dense 100G transport
→ 5G is driving upgrades across the fiber fronthaul and transport infrastructure

Macro Cell
Small Cell

Fiber
Coax
µwave

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Fiber Fronthaul Options

Deployment Throughput Latency
Cost
WDM / OTN
Point-to-point Passive WDM/WDM-PON
Direct Connections → Save valuable fiber resources
→ Save valuable fiber resources → OAM functionality
→ Lowest latency and → Requires colored or tunable → Relatively expensive solution
simplest deployment
optical interfaces WDM OTN
→ Large number of → Distance limitation due to
fiber resources DU
potential high IL b/c of multiple
→ Limited reliability passive components OTN

Dark Fiber Passive WDM

DU DU

RU/AAS RU/AAS RU/AAS RU/AAS RU/AAS RU/AAS FH
RU/AAS RU/AAS
OTN RU/AAS
OTN
RU/AAS
RU/AAS

RU/AAS

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“Classical” Distributed 4G/5G RAN RU RU
RU
Leverage of existing 4G Architecture

COMOBILE BACKHAUL CELL SITE
C-RAN HubCORE ROUTER

FRONTHAULSS
S S CU DU

“Classical” Centralized 4G/5G RAN (C-RAN) BBU

xWDM RU
RU

FRONTHAUL RU
SS
CU DU MUX S S PRE-
BBU viavisolutions.com DEMUX

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Centralized 5G Cloud RAN (new players & mmWave) RU

Slicing & functional splits

RU

Regional MIDHAUL FRONTHAUL RU
Hub

CU MUX S S DEMUX DU MUX S S DEMUX

BBU MWDM DWDM
LWDM
→ Currently used wavebands: CWDM (full band) and
DWDM (C-band)

→ New WDM wavelengths in O-band with tighter ch-
spacing for 100G/400G transmission
→ Migration from CWDM to DWDM in C-band and
to MWDM and LWDM (1260-1360nm) in O-band

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DWDM over CWDM (aka Sidecar)

DWDM over CWDM provides an uplift of existing CWDM networks to support more λs
without the need to change the existing infrastructure.

1547.72 nm 1470 nmDWDM1470 nm 1547.72 nm Uses same physical
1548.51 nm 1490 nm CWDM1490 nm 1548.51 nm layer as CWDM
1549.32 nm CWDM1510 nm 1549.32 nm
1550.12 nm 1510 nm 1530 nm 1550.12 nm Increases number of
1550.92 nm 1530 nm DWDM 1550.92 nm channels from 18 to >40ch
1551.72 nm 1550 nm 1550 nm 1551.72 nm
1552.52 nm 1570 nm 1570 nm 1552.52 nm
1553.33 nm 1590 nm 1553.33 nm
1590 nm 1610 nm
1610 nm

Example of 8 DWDM channels added to an existing 8-channel CWDM network

viavisolutions.com Uses lower cost 100GHz DWDM
components in C-band only

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Complex Network Topology Fronthaul DU-RU

FH → CPRI/eCPRI/ORAN
→ Range <20kM
FH Regional → Latency in µs
FH MTSO / MEC
Midhaul CU-DU
CU / DU CU CU / DU
→ F1 Interface
DU Midhaul DU Backhaul → Range <80kM
→ Latency low ms
C-RAN EPC / NGC
Backhaul CU-Core
MH BH FH BH
Aggregation → S1/eS1 Interface
DU → Range <200kM
DU Network → Latency tens of ms

DU FH

BH

gNB

4G RAN

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Challenges Massive fiber deployment requires
trained resources
→ Fiber Everywhere
→ Fat pipes for Transport New functional splits with
stringent SLAs for fronthaul,
→ Flexible and Efficient Fronthaul synchronization, complex testing

→ New 5G mmWave Spectrum (GHz) Signal quality issues (path loss,
→ Massive MIMO flatness, phase noise, & linearity)

→ App Specific Network Slicing Scale of service activation
→ High Velocity Service Activation

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is More Than a RAN Evolution

Large → mmWave
Bandwidth → 100MHz Plus

→ Ethernet based TSN PTP Large → Especially FR2 (mmWave)
→ GPS not cost effective Timing number → Small coverage
and Sync of Small
→ Beam forming
cells → FR1 Coverage
→ FR2 Capacity
→ Disaggregated eCPRI 5G eMBB Massive
→ Low FH bitrate Fronthaul / Implications MIMO → 12 fiber pairs
→ Not proportional to antenna port → QSFPs and MPO
Packet
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Topology depends on: Multiple Higher Greater
→ Fiber Cost, Capacity, Fiber FH Order Fiber
and Latency Topologies Optical count
Multiplexing at RU
→ CWDM/MWDM
→ DWDM
→ NGPON

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Resolving 5G Deployment Challenges FIELD
SERIES
4-5G RRH O-RAN Backhaul
4G/5G Core EPC / NGC
Fronthaul 5G O-DU Midhaul Network Interfaces
4-5G C-RAN Core Network
Access Xn S1
Option 7.2x SMO/RIC 5G O-CU X2
O-RAN/eCPRI
01, 02, E2 N2
Fiber F1 Interface (Ethernet)
Data Center &
5G O-RU Interconnects

Radio Transport/Sync

Fiber Transport RAN Workforce

Mission Critical and Stringent Transport and Evolution to Beam Centric / Test Consistency
Foundational Multiple Timing SLA Non-Stand Alone (LTE + Reports Availability
Topologies (PON, WDM, etc) 5GNR)

MTS 2000 Fiber Inspection MTS 5800 NITRO vNet Cell Advisor ONA-800 RFVision VIAVI StrataSync enabled

▪ Fiber Certification ▪ Backhaul Transmission SLA 5G ▪ Asset management
▪ Rapid Fault Isolation ▪ Fronthaul Latency Specifications ▪ Test results and reports
▪ xWDM Spectrum ▪ Network Timing/Synchronization ▪ M-MIMO Beam Coverage ▪ Tool configuration
▪ Virtual Service Activation and ▪ 5GNR FR1 and FR2 Support ▪ License management
Analysis/Channel Check ▪ Interference Hunting
Assurance ▪ RAN Performance © 2022 VIAVI Solutions Inc. 11
▪ Antenna Alignment

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