Fronthaul Session

AE Summit 2016

Mario Simard & Marquis Dorais

January 2016

For EXFO internal use only

Fronthaul Market

Page 2
2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved. 2
 FH Addressable Market
AMERICAS

2015 IS WHERE WE ARE SEEING THE INFLEXION POINT

71% growth of new fiber Fronthaul cell sites - Largest Mobile Network Operators in the Americas
AT&T, Verizon, TMO, Sprint, US Cellular
TELCEL 7000 towers, TELMEX 4000 towers (Fiberization)
Next Steps Centralized-RAN (Latency 250us)
WDM Active/Passive
2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved.. 3
 FH Addressable Market
EMEA

2015 IS WHERE WE ARE SEEING THE INFLEXION POINT

61% growth of new fiber Fronthaul cell sites
MNOs are deploying fiber to the antenna today
Strategy & volume varies in each region
E.g. Vodafone ; Orange, EE, Eircom, Telefonica, Telekom/T-Mobile
2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved.. 4
 FH Addressable Market
APAC

2015 IS WHERE WE ARE SEEING THE INFLEXION POINT

63% growth of new fiber Fronthaul cell sites
China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom are ready for C-RAN deployments
Docomo Japan, South Korea already in C-RAN
3G/LTE MNOs in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia,
Singapore etc.
2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved.. 5
 Fronthaul Market
Big market size do we have all the contacts for
this market?

What are the drivers for our sales team short or

long term?

In this market do you believe its an easy SALE?

Page 6
 Fronthaul BDM Team Role

In Business Development we are

looking to open doors to create
opportunity for Sales to close.
Page 7
Fronthaul BDM Team Role

Page 8
Fronthaul Technology Recap

Page 9
2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved. 9
Evolution of the Cell Tower
The Move to Fiber: Cost Savings and Other Advantages

Page 10
10
Legacy Mobile Installation
Before Fronthaul approach : Copper / Coax Installs
Coax Cable
- High power loss in cable
- Bulky & heavy
Base Station Enclosure
Antennas
- Need for colocation with tower
- Need for Climate Control
- Need for Large Battery Backup
- Extra Rental property space required
Copper /
Loss depends on the cable size and the frequency
Coax Cables At 900MHz : 3.7dB / 100m (7/8" cable)
At 2100MHz : 6dB / 100m (7/8" cable)

RF
Radio
Amp
Base
RF
Radio Band BACKHAUL
Amp
Unit
RF
Radio
Amp NID MPLS CS/PS Core
Cell
Site
Router
CSR
Typical architecture for 2G / 3G
cellular deployments Page 11
Cell Site Cabinet
2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved. 11
 Evolution of the Cell Tower
FTTA : Fiber To The Antenna Fronthaul: The new network architecture

RRHs
RF RF
Radio RF
Radio RFAnt
Amp Radio
Amp Radio
Amp RF AmpRF Ant
RadioAntennas
Radio Ant
Amp Amp

Optical Fiber
cables Fronthaul

Copper /
Coax Cables Typical architecture for 4G / LTE cellular deployments

RF
Radio
Amp
Base
RF
Radio Band BACKHAUL
Amp
Unit
RF
Radio
Amp NID MPLS EPC
Cell
Site
Router
CSR

Cell Site Cabinet |

2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved..
12
2015 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved.
12
 Evolution of the Cell Tower
The Move to Fiber: Cost Savings and Other Advantages

Cost Savings
Remote Radio Head (RRH)
Radio + Power Amplifier
- Reduced power consumption from the RRH
(50% savings)

- Eliminate power loss in the coax cable

- Reduce installation cost : Coax bulky & heavy

- Reduced cooling in the BBU hut

- BBU location flexibility

- Reduce battery backup size

Page 13
13
Mobile Architecture Evolution
Centralize Radio Access Networks: Even More Cost Savings

Page 14
14
System Architecture
CPRI Communication Flows

Page 15
15
CPRI Layer 1
Physical Interface Line Rates (CPRI Version 6.1)

Options Protocol Version

Rate Line Coding
(Rates) (Scrambling)

1 614.4 Mbit/s

2 1228.8 Mbit/s
Version 1: No Scrambling
3 2457.6 Mbit/s

4 3072.0 Mbit/s 8B/10B

5 4915.2 Mbit/s
Version 1: No Scrambling
Version 2: Scrambling
6 6144.0 Mbit/s
Scrambling Recommended
7 9830.4 Mbit/s

7A 8110.08 Mbit/s

8 10137.6 Mbit/s 64B/66B Version 2: Scrambling

9 12165.12 Mbit/s
Page 16
16
Sales Strategies

Page 17
2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved. 17
Deployment Challenges

What do you think they are ?

Speeds up Close the technology Reduce field dispatches

cell-site deployment gap and prevent unnecessary
tower climbs
Transition from
Copper/RF to
Fiber/CPRI

2013 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved.. 18

 EXFOs Fronthaul Testing Solution
Fiber Validation
Fiber Inspection
Distance to fault (iOLM)

CPRI Validation
Connectivity
Alarm & Error Monitoring
Latency Measurement
SDT Measurement
CPRI BERT

RF Monitoring
Interference Identification
Uplink Spectrum and Spectrogram

Backhaul Validation
SyncE, 1588PTP
Ethernet, SONET/SDH
2013 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved.. 19
 TestFlow
1 Engage Define Configure

2 TestNetwork UploadResults

3 AnalyzeResults

1
3

2
 Our Challenges and Strategies
Stay focus on a short list of targeted
accounts
Work with USA team, EMEA team and APAC team
Understand regional market reality
Understand their actual FH deployment process
Understand who is doing what (managed
services (MS), contractors)
Find the Method of Procedure (MOP) main contact
As much as we can write their MOP with them
(influence)
Make sure we are an approved supplier
Find their main contractors (work with one or two)
Train them (make them look and act like
champions)
Fronthaul BDM initiative 2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved. 21
 Our Challenges and Strategies
Demonstrate our expertise (trusted adviser)
Leverage our knowledge about C-RAN technology
(WDM, Latency, Synchro)
Application note
Webinars / Seminars / Training programs / NIS
video
Business case / Leverage what we have done in
the USA
Generic MOP (including the close-out package)
Work with large training centers in the US and
around the world

Use EXFOs Best Innovation TestFlow

Leverage the business case
Fronthaul BDM initiative 2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved. 22
 Our Challenges and Strategies
No Test Approach
Leverage our knowledge about C-RAN technology (WDM, Latency,
Synchro)
To justify testing and validation

Get to the Maintenance Department (MNO, MS), find the repercussions

Ride-along to get data on repeat truck rolls.
Put the business case in place justifying the test approach, leverage
our experience into the US market or new success
Make it resonate to the different levels into the organization

Get to the contractors with the NIS approach (US contractor)

Use the video, investigate with the main contractors who has to pay
for repeat truck rolls
Go out there on ride-along with contractors
Learn and teach
Use the close-out report
Show them how they can be ahead of their competitors (other
Fronthaul BDM initiative
contractors) 2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved. 23
Fronthaul Foundation

Page 24
2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved. 24
 5G Estimated Requirements

Ericsson

Page 25
25
 Fronthaul is the new RAN Foundation
Building an infrastructure

CPRI link-rate explosion

6 Gbps IP throughput
100MHz carrier 8x8 MIMO CPRI 50Gb/s

Make sure the foundation is good before building up

So, pay attention to FTTA first
Verify the Optical connectors, SFPs
Validate the Fibers (optical power budget)
Validate the CPRI link (sync, alarms, BER, Latency)

What you deploy should be ready for future requirements

Upgrade of the Optical Transport Network
Higher CPRI speeds
Higher QoE requirements

More Testing Now

less Troubleshooting Later

2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved..

26
2015 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved.
26
|
 Fronthaul C-RAN Architecture
Optical Power Budget
15 Km

BBU hotel

DEMUX

MUX
BBU
DWDM Fiber
BBU
BBU

Demux Mux
2 dB < < 3 dB 2 dB < < 3 dB

min. 4 connectors Fiber min. 2 connectors

1,2 dB < < 2,8 dB 3 dB < < 4,5 dB 0,6 dB < < 1,4 dB
(average 0,5 dB / conn.) ( 0,3 dB/Km at 1310 nm)
( 0,2 dB/Km at 1550 nm)

8,8 dB < Total Power Loss < 14,7 dB

Fronthaul BDM initiative 2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved.. 27

Fronthaul C-RAN Architecture
What is the most critical aspect to consider in a C-RAN architecture?

You guys have something to teach our customers!

Latency!

2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved..

28
2015 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved.
28
|
Latency Requirement in C-RAN
HARQ: Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

HARQ process max:

3msec

2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved.. 29

Latency Requirement in C-RAN
Co-Located Cell Site Latency NOT an issue

Round Trip Latency budget for the

HARQ process is 3msec

Very little latency

added by the short
fiber span (~2usec)

Most BBUs today

processing time is
2.75msec

Latency margin for

fiber is about 250usec
2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved.. 30
 Latency Requirement in C-RAN
Centralized BBU Hotel (C-RAN)

Round Trip Latency budget Added latency due to the:

for the HARQ process is - Long Fiber Span
3msec - CPRI Transport Equipment

Budget for Fiber & Transport System : 300usec 2.70msec

10usec / km fiber latency (Round trip) for BBU
Transport System (OTN / DWDM) latency : 50usec processing
250usec for Fiber latency = 25km!
2014 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved.. 31
 Simple calculation of R.O.I.
Cost of troubleshooting an Optical Problem on the Fronthaul

Radio Field
NOC
Eng. Crew
ANALYZE CUSTOMER FIND THE ROOT CAUSE RIGGER TEAM TO FIX
TROUBLE TICKET THE PROBLEM
Seriously degraded throughput No diagnostic from Network Get a Rigger on site to fix the
Equipment problem
Investigation on E2E
possible issues Drive test: High BER from 1 Mobile operator Truck Roll
cell Tower Crew to climb to the RRH
Transfer the TT to RAN
Engineering CPRI monitoring on the Check Connectors + Clean +
DL&UL fibers of this cell FIP test
OTDR test: 15 dB power loss
on the connector before RRH

4 hours 1 day + 3.5 hours 6.5 hours = 1.5 days

2 man.h 5.5 man.h 8.5 man.h = 16 m.h
120 $ 330 $ 1400 $ = 1850 $
2015 EXFO Inc. All rights reserved. | 32
 Simple calculation of R.O.I.
Cost of testing

ST* OF TESTING DURING CONSTRUCTION < 155 $

mples with 3 sectors, 2 carriers per sector = 6 RRHs (typical for 3G or LTE)

72 connectors 6 loopbacks 6 BBU emulations

How to justify testing?
One Solution

FIBER SFP EQUIPMENT

y/damaged/scratch Connector not Remote-radio-head
connector clicked-in properly DOA
nnector not clicked- within the SFP Remote-radio-head
properly at junction Faulty SFP at the RRH malfunction/not syncing
/BBU/RRH Wrong SFP plugged-in Antenna malfunction
ken fiber in the (RRH or BBU), or not Faulty SFPs
nector at the matching the opposite
Wrong CPRI data rate
ction box/BBU/RRH SFP
RRH Functional Validation
CPRI Protocol Testing BBU Emulation

CPRI Interface Emulation

need for BBU access RRH Validation

Many cases where cell techs do not have
access to BBU
BBU not present at tower construction time Top
Junction
Box
RI Link validation to RRH confirms:

Proper power to RRH (-48V)

Proper RRH operation
Proper operation of SFP in the RRH and BBU* Bottom
Covers 1.2 Gbps to
Junction
Box 9.8 Gbps
Proper TX optical power from RRH
Proper fiber connection points (bottom / top
OVP box, RRH SFP fiber)
onthaul Activity Success Stories
 Field Trial
mpe Arizona
2, 2015
 TestFlow Field Trial
TEMPE, AZ DEC 2,2015

Flow Fronthaul Demo

Tick & Mario started the TestFlow demo going
through the test sequence for FIP, iOLM and CPRI

TestFlow operated flawlessly easily going

through every step

75% of all tested fiber connectors in the CPRI

Interface Panel (red 2U rack box) failed!
 TestFlow Field Trial
TEMPE, AZ DEC 2,2015

Flow Fronthaul Demo

iOLM also detected some fiber connector
issues at the top!

Fiber connector at top junction box (OVP)

showed up as being highly reflective. Potential
causes: dirty, damaged or not well seated LC
fiber connector in the LC coupler.
 TestFlow Field Trial
TEMPE, AZ DEC 2,2015

Flow Fronthaul Demo

CPRI Testing Passed but did indicate low TX
power from some RRHs confirming iOLM issues
detected.

~4dB optical loss compared to other RRHs

VZW team asked contractor on-site to go back

 TestFlow Field Trial
TEMPE, AZ DEC 2,2015

Flow Fronthaul Demo

After cleaning and inspecting by the contractor at
top of tower, lossy links were now good!

c of the contractor going back

 TestFlow Field Trial
TEMPE, AZ DEC 2,2015

Flow Fronthaul Demo a Success!

Oscar mentioned recent VZW re-org with new execs

much more process oriented so he felt that
TestFlow would resonate well with this new group.

Oscar wants the EXFO team to present TestFlow

solution and findings to his team as well as his
Director ASAP. They also want pricing on
TestFlow.

Ticks comment on demo-ing TestFlow: I have to

 Cellular Update
2015: Successful Maine Fronthaul Field Trial

2015: Backhaul trial turned out to be a deal stopper (30+ units) since the
Throughput test did not meet US Cell troubleshooting needs.

2015: PoC enhancements to the TCP TP were completed

12, 2015 : Tested PoC in a second successful field trial in Wisconsin

y).

23, 2015: Field trial in Maine to troubleshoot a low cellular throughput on

e cell sites. Testing done on the backhaul using EtherSAM and RFC6349
wed no issues on the backhaul side.
 Cellular Update
23, 2015

her investigation from EXFO is pointing towards issues on the RF coax

ing installation. A investigative report on the potential cabling issues
with the help of David Bedford (independent RF specialist) was created
sent to US Cellular.
HiMarquis,

Thanksfortakingtheadditionaltimeandefforttoinvestigate
otherpossibilitiesatthesitewhichmaybecausingor
contributingtotheissuesweareseeing.

Thanks,
Mike Raether
Lead Data Network Engineer
 Cellular Update
Made cables No strain relief Causes signal loss / PIM
e 18.5 ft-lb over / under torque Signal loss / Interference
Cellular Update
Signal loss, RF issues
Cellular Update
Bolt Effect PIM issues, Interference
nthaul Roadmap
Service Disruption Time (Nov 2015)

Dual Port / Quad Port (Feb 2016)

ver CPRI Analysis (June 2016)

Simple Backhaul Service Validation

e 2015)

Measurement (June 2016)

CPRI SDT
C-RAN Ring-Architecture
CPRI Service Disruption Time (SDT) Measurement

I SDT measurement Setup

ard SDT Threshold : 50msec

RRH
RRH CPRI Transport System
(WDM - OTN)

Working path
BBU
Protection path
BBU
C-RAN Ring-Architecture
CPRI Service Disruption Time (SDT) Measurement

During a failure (fiber cut),

the switch from the Working
to the Protection must occur
within 50msec

RRH
RRH CPRI Transport System
(WDM - OTN)

Working path
BBU
Protection path
BBU
C-RAN Ring-Architecture
CPRI Service Disruption Time (SDT) Measurement

In this example
re occurred on the working path
Switch time : 131.14msec
Failed SDT!

RRH
RRH CPRI Transport System
(WDM - OTN)

Working path
BBU
Protection path
BBU
Dual / Quad Port CPRI
 CRAN Lab & Field Testing
Dual / Quad Port CPRI

dependent CPRI
mulation Mode on
ch port (BBU / RRU)

dependent CPRI Rate

each port

dependent Frequency
fset injection of +/-
0ppm
CRAN Lab & Field Testing
Dual / Quad Port CPRI

700Gv2
Legacy Transport
Ethernet / Transport / CPRI
Dual Port Testing
Optical OTDR / iOLM

880Q
Legacy Transport
Ethernet / Transport /CPRI
Quad Port CPRI Testing
(Beta Load - Feb 2016)

FTB-1 Pro
870Q
Ethernet / Transport /CPRI
Quad Port CPRI Testing
(Beta Load - Feb 2016)
CRAN Lab & Field Testing
Dual / Quad Port CPRI

FTB 870Q / 880Q

QUAD Port CPRI
 Quad Port CPRI
Eblink Wireless CPRI

nk
Wireless CPRI
CentralOffice
DataCenter

Source:Orange
Optical,
CPRI&RF
validation
RF over CPRI
RF over CPRI Analysis
Complete Fronthaul Solution

CentralOffice
ruck roll to the DataCenter
nna, see RF
ference within the
tral Office

test instrument for

cal, CPRI, RF, Sync Source:Orange
Optical,
Ethernet tests. Optical,
CPRI&RF Ethernet&Sync
validation validation
Backhaul Service Validation
 Ethernet Service Validation
EXFOs iSAM

RA simple 3 step approach, but now including TCP testing all the way to 100Gig!
Sync
Sync Measurement
 Sync Measurement
Upcoming Feature June 2016

S Status Check
Show: SNR, Satellite number and quantity, Lock/unlock status, export logs and survey of
satellite over a 24 hour period
GPS status available during conditioning of atomic clock

e error
Measure and display a graph of the Time Error compared to a 1PPS reference.
The 1 PPS reference could be
1 PPS source (from an external GPS or any other reliable 1 PPS source)

Internal Atomic clock

Drift in holdover mode target accuracy less than 200 ns after 3 hours, with a max
temperature variation of +/- 1C.

fication of PTP connection:

New profile for slave G.8275.1 supporting all messages in L2 Multicast or L3 Unicast
Extended supported rate for Announce, Sync, Delay-Request
Extended domain support to full range (0-255)

DV measurement
Graph of iPDV vs time
EXFOs Fronthaul Testing Solution
B-700G V2 Series
CombiningthePowerofOptical,EthernetandCPRI
Applications:
Fronthaul and Backhaul
Ethernet Business Services
Metro networks turn-up

Network
Connectivity

Service
Validation
Your Journey to take Fiber to the Top
VZW Contractor Success Story - NIS
Thank you