Abstract

Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) refers to a novel cellular architecture in which low-cost wireless access points, known as radio units (RUs), are centrally managed by a reconfigurable centralized “cloud”, or central, unit (CU). C-RAN allows operators to reduce the capital and operating expenses needed to deploy and maintain dense heterogeneous networks, as well as to reap statistical multiplexing and spectral efficiency gains. The key bottleneck limiting the performance of C-RAN is set by the capacity and latency constraints of the network of fronthaul links that connect RUs and CU. This talk discusses the corresponding technical challenges faced by C-RAN design and overviews some solutions. These include fronthaul compression, along with generalizations thereof inspired by network information theory, and decentralized local control based on alternative functional splits.

There will be a sandwich lunch available following the seminar.

BIO: Osvaldo Simeone received the M.Sc. degree (with honors) and the Ph.D. degree in information engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 2001 and 2005, respectively. He is currently with the Center for Wireless Communications and Signal Processing Research (CWCSPR), New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Newark, where he is an Associate Professor. His research interests concern wireless communications, information theory and machine learning. Dr. Simeone is a co-recipient of the 2015 IEEE Communication Society Best Tutorial Paper Award and of the Best Paper Awards at IEEE SPAWC 2007 and IEEE WRECOM 2007 . He currently serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory.