Small Cell Forum MWC 2016 Presentation: Small Cell Forum, Mark Grayson

1. Virtualizing the RAN – a Small
Cell Forum Update
Mark Grayson
SCF Release Steering Group & Cisco Distinguished Engineer

2. Base Station
Densification
Broader set of
use cases
NFV and SDN
Mobile Networking Mega Trends
Indoor coverage,
higher frequencies,
shorter ranges
Not just Mobile
Broadband, but agility
to support verticals and
IoT value chains
Twin focus on
CAPEX/asset utilization
as well as
OPEX/automation
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

3. SCF Virtualization Activities: Addressing the
historical architectural tension
• Flattening the RAN architecture
• Adding intelligence into the base
station
• Facilitating Small Cell Ecosystem
• Hot Spot Capacity and Indoor
Propositions
• Non-ideal backhaul transport
• Data Centre evolution and
centralization of workloads
• Simplifying the radio access network
• Macro and Hot Spot Capacity
Propositions
• Advanced RF Co-ordination
• ETSI NFV Use Case #6
• Ideal fronthaul transport
CentralizationDistribution
“43% of operators deploying small cells will be
deploying virtualization in part of their RAN” Source:
Maravedis-Rethink © Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

4. 1. Is there any divergence between how virtualization is viewed from a macro
RAN perspective versus a small cell perspective?
2. What are the real business benefits of virtualization in the RAN? Do benefits
apply equally to macro and small cell deployment use cases?
3. Are current small cell architectures well suited to
virtualization/cloudification?
4. Are there unique attributes of small cell transport that impact fronthaul
considerations?
5. Can virtualization deliver a phased roadmap, e.g., aligned with longer-term
5G directions?
6. How do we ensure virtualization supports innovation across a multi-vendor
ecosystem?
Key Questions from Forum’s Operator
Group (May 2014)
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

5. Business Rationale for Virtualization
(and associated centralization)
PHYRLC/MAC
SON
OAM
APPS
RRC
PDCP
Upper
MAC
Lower
MAC
Upper
PHY
Lower
PHY
RF
Centralization
Benefits
RF
Benefits
DRAN PDCP Split MAC MAC/PHY Split PHY CPRI
Transport
Costs
Centralization Benefits Independent of Split
RF Gains improved with lower splits
Transport costs minimized with higher splits
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

6. Accommodating Transport Limitations
Physical
Network
Function
Virtual
Network
Function
Virtualization
split
One-Way Latency DL Bandwidth UL Bandwidth
PDCP-RLC < 30ms 150Mbps 50Mbps
Split MAC < 2ms - 6ms 150Mbps 50Mbps
MAC-PHY < 2ms - 6ms 150Mbps 50Mbps
Split PHY < 250µs 1000Mbps 1000Mbps
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

7. VNF Centralized Functions PNF Remote SC Radio
Small Cell Forum: Accelerating
Virtualization for non-ideal transport
Centralization benefits with
no additional transport
requirements
Additional RF benefits with
limited enhanced transport
requirements
Dark fiber not
applicable to
venue
PHYRLC/MAC
SON
OAM
APPS
RRC
PDCP
Upper
MAC
Lower
MAC
Upper
PHY
Lower
PHY
RF
nFAPI
Mobility, Enhanced SON, RF Co-ordination,
Improved Security, Policy Enforcement…
Simplified management, Advanced
RF Co-ordination
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

8. BS Site NFVI
BS Site
Leveraging Existing MEF Transport
Architectures
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015
SmallCell
RAN BS
RAN
BS
RAN
NC CEN CEN
EVC(m) PT2 20ms EVC(sc) PT1 5ms
PHY
RF
Physical
Network
Function
Virtual
Network
Function
PDCP/
RLC/MAC
Virtual Network Function
Co-located with Macro RAN, on-
premise or in data center
NFVI PoP
Virtual
Network
Function
PDCP/
RLC/MAC
Virtual
Network
Function
PDCP/
RLC/MAC
On-prem NFVI
nFAPI

9. 1. Evangelizing Small Cell Virtualization
2. Defining a multi-vendor nFAPI interface to enable PNF/VNF decomposition
based on MAC/PHY split
3. Accelerating demonstration of multi-vendor nFAPI interface
4. Driving ETSI ISG NFV to enable data-plane acceleration support for air interface
crypto, RoHC and PTP/Sync
5. ETSI NFV ISG PoC showcasing feasibility of Virtualized Centralized Small Cell
supporting nFAPI interface to remote PNFs (Scoping work and demonstration)
6. Co-ordinating with BBF to define PNF Management Object and associated
counters
7. NFV-MANO aspects related to transport integration to enable workload
placement/affinity rules to account for transport BW and Delay
8. Initial scoping to understand multi-operator aspects of virtualized small cells
9. Driving learning's of SCF virtualization work into 5G evolution
Small Cell Virtualization:
The Role of the Forum
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

10. Board agreed work item to develop definition of
nFAPI central/remote MAC/PHY spilt
Conventional Small Cell
PHY / RF
Layer 2
RRC
S1 / X2 Client
IPsec
GPS / Location
Timing/Sync
SC Management
TLS / IPSec
Small Cell EMS
VNF Centralized Functions
Layer 2
RRC
S1 / X2 Client
IPsec
Timing/Sync
Management
TLS / IPSec
VNF EMS
PNF Remote SC Radio
PNF EMS
Timing/Sync
PNF Management
GPS / Location
PHY / RF
Service Discovery
Service Discovery
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

11. VNF Centralized Functions
Layer 2
RRC
S1 / X2 Client
IPsec
Timing/Sync
Management
TLS / IPSec
VNF EMS
PNF Remote SC Radio
PNF EMS
Timing/Sync
PNF Management
GPS / Location
PHY / RF
Service Discovery
P9
P2
P10
P3
nFAPI Decomposition
P2 – Service Discovery
P3 – Positioning
P4 – NMM
P5 – RF and PHY Control
P7 – MAC-PHY main SAP
P8 – PHY Diagnostics
P9 – OAM
P10 – Synchronization –
Frequency, Phase and
Time
P5, P7, P8
P4
Board agreed work item to develop definition of
nFAPI central/remote MAC/PHY spilt
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

12. Acceleration of Multi-Vendor Virtualized RAN
and Management/Automation
Centralized
Small Cell VNF
NFVI
Hypervisor
Hardware
Resources
(COTS)
Multi-
Vendor
Remote
Small
Cell
(PNF)
DM
VNF EMS
(OSS/BSS)
NM: PNF/VNF Co-ordination
VNF Manager
(VNFM)
Virtualized
Infrastructure
Manager
(VIM)
NFV
Orchestrator
(NFVO)
NFV-MANO
DM
VNF Manager
(VNFM)
Virtualized
Infrastructure
Manager
(VIM)
NFV
Orchestrator
(NFVO)
Hypervisor
Hardware
Resources
(COTS)
• Small Cell Workload
Placement
Transport Network
Management Integration
• Hardware Acceleration of
VNF Small Cell Functions
IPSec
Air interface Crypto
RoHC
PTP/Sync
• Real Time Processing
Aspects
PCI/PCIe Pass-through,
DPDK, CP/DP separation
nFAPI
TR-069/PNF MO
PNF EMS
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

13. Conventional DAS
Virtualized Small Cell: Addressing scalability of
current multi-operator solutions
Multi-Operator
DAS
SP#1
ENB
SP#2
ENB
WAN
Challenging to
scale down due to
need to bring on
premise base
stations from each
operator
RF RF
Virtualized Small Cell
SP#1
VNF
SP#2
VNF
nFAPI nFAPI
WAN
Multi-Operator
PNF
Multi-vendor
nFAPI interface
avoids i) RF
interfacing and ii)
on-premise base
station
requirement
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015
DAS
OAM
PNF
OAM

14. Driving the virtualization narrative into 5G
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015
(Non-CPRI) virtualized RAN
architecture is set to be a
foundational capability in 5G

15. Topic Findings
What are the real business benefits of
virtualization in the RAN?
Identified centralization benefits,
transport costs & MANO/Automation
elastic scaling capabilities
Small Cell Virtualization
Key Takeaways
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

16. Topic Findings
What are the real business benefits of
virtualization in the RAN?
Identified centralization benefits,
transport costs & MANO/Automation
elastic scaling capabilities
Are current small cell architectures
well suited to virtualization?
Yes - FAPI MAC/PHY decomposition well
suited to provide virtualization baseline
Small Cell Virtualization
Key Takeaways
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

17. Topic Findings
What are the real business benefits of
virtualization in the RAN?
Identified centralization benefits,
transport costs & MANO/Automation
elastic scaling capabilities
Are current small cell architectures
well suited to virtualization?
Yes - FAPI MAC/PHY decomposition well
suited to provide virtualization baseline
How do we ensure virtualization
supports innovation across a multi-
vendor ecosystem?
SCF’s nFAPI work stream set to
accelerate multi-vendor PNF/VNF
interoperability
Small Cell Virtualization
Key Takeaways
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

18. Topic Findings
What are the real business benefits of
virtualization in the RAN?
Identified centralization benefits,
transport costs & MANO/Automation
elastic scaling capabilities
Are current small cell architectures
well suited to virtualization?
Yes - FAPI MAC/PHY decomposition well
suited to provide virtualization baseline
How do we ensure virtualization
supports innovation across a multi-
vendor ecosystem?
SCF’s nFAPI work stream set to
accelerate multi-vendor PNF/VNF
interoperability
Can virtualization deliver a phased
roadmap, e.g., aligned with longer-
term 5G directions?
Yes - Flexible virtualization over non-
ideal transport now emerging as core
5G requirements
Small Cell Virtualization
Key Takeaways
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015

19. Small Cell Virtualization
Key Takeaways
© Small Cell Forum Ltd 2015