| Summary: | A cloud radio access network (Cloud-RAN) is a new cellular technology that brings baseband processing units for a set of base stations into a central server retaining only the radio front-ends at the cell sites. This new architecture opens up opportunities for algorithms that require centralized processing. However, efficient implementation of the algorithms presents a number of challenges the most critical being latency, fronthaul capacity, and resource control. In this paper, we propose a software-defined radio-based architecture that addresses these problems and can be implemented on a cloud of general purpose computing platforms. We also present the practical implementation of Cloud-RAN running on an off-the-shelf server to validate the flexibility of the architecture. The implementation is able to realize various cellular networks, including heterogeneous networks, distribute-antenna systems, and transmission schemes, such as transmit antenna selection and open-loop transmit diversity.
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