Open vs. Proprietary 5G Fronthaul Interface: SK Telecom Case

January 11, 2018 | By Harrison J. Son (son@netmanias.com)

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KOREAN ICT Research Report of Netmanias.com

Open vs. Proprietary 5G Fronthaul Interface: SK Telecom Case

SK Telecom, having built and operated the world’s best LTE nationwide network, is now paving a way to launch its commercial 5G network in March 2019.

Most mobile operators in the world are under pressure of high costs of building 5G radio access network (RAN) because 5G, using mmWave frequencies, requires more densely installed base stations, which apparently means intensive financial investment, compared to 4G LTE.

SK Telecom announced on December 15 last year that its newly developed “open 5G fronthaul interface specification” was adopted as a Korean national standard by the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA). This report covers the "5G RAN architecture and Fronthaul" strategies that are being shaped by SK Telecom.

This report will discuss the two key challenges in 4G C-RAN (i.e. fronthaul capacity and vendor-proprietary interface) along with the solutions proposed so far in the industry.

It will also introduce the 5G RAN-architecture and open interfaces proposed in the 5G open fronthaul interface standard by SK Telecom.

Price: $695 (Single license) | $2,995 (Corporate license)

Author: Harrison J. Son @ Netmanias

Contact: son@netmanias.com, tech@netmanias.com

Length: 17 pages

Published: January 11, 2018

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Table of Contents

Abbreviations		1
[SK Telecom PR] SK Telecom’s fronthaul technology for 5G adopted as Korean national standard		2
RAN architecture: 4G RAN – Problem statements		3
RAN architecture: 5G RAN		4
5G RAN architecture: High-layer split (F1) and low layer split (RoE, eCPRI)		5
Lower layer function split: Radio over Ethernet vs. eCPRI		6
Open 5G fronthaul interface: IEEE NGFI (1914) WG, xRAN and Telecom Infra Project (TIP) [Free Preview]		7
SK Telecom 5G RAN architecture: Open fronthaul interface		8
SK Telecom 5G RAN architecture: High-layer split (F1) and low layer split (Fx) (1)		9
SK Telecom 5G RAN architecture: High-layer split (F1) and low layer split (Fx) (2)		10
Comparison between IEEE RoE (D3.0) and SK Telecom open F/H interface specification (1)		11
Comparison between IEEE RoE (D3.0) and SK Telecom open F/H interface specification (2)		12
Comparison between IEEE RoE (D3.0) and SK Telecom open F/H interface specification (3)		13
Comparison between IEEE RoE (D3.0) and SK Telecom open F/H interface specification (4)		14
Comparison between IEEE RoE (D3.0) and SK Telecom open F/H interface specification (5)		15
Netmanias comments on SK Telecom’s strategy		16
Open 5G RAN and fronthaul architecture of SK Telecom		17
Milestone of 5G technology development of SK Telecom		18