Open radio access network with unified remote units supporting multiple functional splits, multiple wireless interface protocols, multiple generations of radio access technology, and multiple radio frequency bands

1. A system to provide wireless coverage for a plurality of cells, the system comprising:

a virtualized headend; and

a plurality of remote units, each of which is associated with one or more antennas to wirelessly transmit and receive downlink and uplink radio frequency (RF) signals to and from user equipment;

wherein the system is configured to operate as a distributed antenna system (DAS) when serving at least one of the cells;

wherein the plurality of remote units is configured to communicate with the virtualized headend using a switched Ethernet network; and

wherein the virtualized headend is configured to communicate downlink user-plane data including frequency-domain in-phase and quadrature (IQ) data and downlink control-plane data for a first cell served by at least one open radio access network (O-RAN) distributed unit (DU) to at least some of the remote units used to serve the first cell; and

wherein the virtualized headend is configured to perform at least some physical layer baseband processing for a wireless interface used to serve the first cell.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of remote units is configured to:

serve the first cell using a first functional split; and

serve a second cell using a second functional split; and

wherein the first functional split differs from the second functional split.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of remote units is configured to:

serve the first cell using a first wireless interface protocol; and

serve a second cell using a second wireless interface protocol; and

wherein the first wireless interface protocol differs from the second wireless interface protocol.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of remote units is configured to:

serve the first cell using a first frequency band; and

serve a second cell using a second frequency band; and

wherein the first frequency band differs from the second frequency band.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of remote units comprises:

a plurality of downlink multi-protocol modules, each of which including a plurality of downlink processing signal paths;

a plurality of uplink multi-protocol modules, each of which including a plurality of uplink processing signal paths;

a plurality of downlink radio modules, each of which including at least one downlink radio signal path;

a plurality of uplink radio modules, each of which including at least one uplink radio signal path;

a downlink IQ stream switch to couple each downlink radio signal path to a respective one or more of the downlink processing signal paths;

an uplink IQ stream switch to couple each uplink processing signal path to a respective one or more of the uplink radio signal paths;

control-plane functionality to process control-plane communications;

management-plane functionality to process management-plane communications; and

synchronization-plane functionality to process synchronization-plane communications in order to synchronize that unified remote unit to a master time base for the system.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the virtualized headend is configured to digitally sum uplink user-plane data received from said at least some of the remote units used to serve the first cell.

7. A method of providing wireless coverage for a plurality of cells using a system comprising a virtualized headend and a plurality of remote units, each of which is associated with one or more antennas to wirelessly transmit and receive downlink and uplink radio frequency (RF) signals to and from user equipment, the method comprising:

operating the system as a distributed antenna system (DAS) when serving at least one of the cells;

communicating downlink user-plane data including frequency-domain in-phase and quadrature (IQ) data for a first cell served by an open radio access network (O-RAN) distributed unit (DU) from the virtualized headend to one or more remote units used to serve the first cell over a switched Ethernet network;

communicating downlink control-plane data for the first cell served by the O-RAN DU from the virtualized headend to the one or more remote units used to serve the first cell over the switched Ethernet network; and

performing, by the virtualized headend, at least some physical layer baseband processing for a wireless interface used to serve the first cell.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: using at least one of the remote units to serve the first cell using a first functional split and to serve a second cell using a second functional split; and

wherein the first functional split differs from the second functional split.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: using at least one of the remote units to serve the first cell using a first wireless interface protocol and to serve a second cell using a second wireless interface protocol; and

wherein the first wireless interface protocol differs from the second wireless interface protocol.

10. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: using at least one of the remote units to serve the first cell using a first frequency band and to serve a second cell using a second frequency band; and

wherein the first frequency band differs from the second frequency band.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein each of the plurality of remote units comprises:

a plurality of downlink multi-protocol modules, each of which including a plurality of downlink processing signal paths;

a plurality of uplink multi-protocol modules, each of which including a plurality of uplink processing signal paths;

a plurality of downlink radio modules, each of which including at least one downlink radio signal path;

a plurality of uplink radio modules, each of which including at least one uplink radio signal path;

a downlink IQ stream switch to couple each downlink radio signal path to a respective one or more downlink processing signal paths;

an uplink IQ stream switch to couple each uplink processing signal path to a respective one or more uplink radio signal paths;

control-plane functionality to process control-plane communications;

management-plane functionality to process management-plane communications; and

synchronization-plane functionality to process synchronization-plane communications in order to synchronize that unified remote unit to a master time base for the system.

12. The method of claim 7 , further comprising digitally summing, by the virtualized headend, uplink user-plane data received from said one or more remote units used to serve the first cell.

13. A system to provide wireless coverage for a plurality of cells, the system comprising:

a virtualized headend; and

a plurality of remote units, each of which is associated with one or more antennas to wirelessly transmit and receive downlink and uplink radio frequency (RF) signals to and from user equipment;

wherein the system is configured to operate as a distributed antenna system (DAS) when serving at least one of the cells;

wherein the plurality of remote units is configured to communicate with the virtualized headend using a switched Ethernet network; and

wherein the virtualized headend is configured to communicate downlink user-plane data including frequency-domain in-phase and quadrature (IQ) data and downlink control-plane data for a first cell served by at least one open radio access network (O-RAN) distributed unit (DU) to at least some of the remote units used to serve the first cell; and

wherein each of the at least some of the remote units used to serve the first cell is configured to perform at least some physical layer baseband processing for a wireless interface used to serve the first cell.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the plurality of remote units is configured to:

serve the first cell using a first functional split; and

serve a second cell using a second functional split; and

wherein the first functional split differs from the second functional split.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the plurality of remote units is configured to:

serve the first cell using a first wireless interface protocol; and

serve a second cell using a second wireless interface protocol; and

wherein the first wireless interface protocol differs from the second wireless interface protocol.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the plurality of remote units is configured to:

serve the first cell using a first frequency band; and

serve a second cell using a second frequency band; and

wherein the first frequency band differs from the second frequency band.

17. The system of claim 13 , wherein each of the plurality of remote units comprises:

a plurality of downlink multi-protocol modules, each of which including a plurality of downlink processing signal paths;

a plurality of uplink multi-protocol modules, each of which including a plurality of uplink processing signal paths;

a plurality of downlink radio modules, each of which including at least one downlink radio signal path;

a plurality of uplink radio modules, each of which including at least one of the uplink radio signal path;

a downlink IQ stream switch to couple each downlink radio signal path to a respective one or more downlink processing signal paths;

an uplink IQ stream switch to couple each uplink processing signal path to a respective one or more uplink radio signal paths;

control-plane functionality to process control-plane communications;

management-plane functionality to process management-plane communications; and

synchronization-plane functionality to process synchronization-plane communications in order to synchronize that unified remote unit to a master time base for the system.

18. The system of claim 13 , wherein the virtualized headend is configured to digitally sum uplink user-plane data received from said at least some of the remote units used to serve the first cell.

19. A method of providing wireless coverage for a plurality of cells using a system comprising a virtualized headend and a plurality of remote units, each of which is associated with one or more antennas to wirelessly transmit and receive downlink and uplink radio frequency (RF) signals to and from user equipment, the method comprising:

operating the system as a distributed antenna system (DAS) when serving at least one of the cells;

communicating downlink user-plane data including frequency-domain in-phase and quadrature (IQ) data for a first cell served by an open radio access network (O-RAN) distributed unit (DU) from the virtualized headend to one or more remote units used to serve the first cell over a switched Ethernet network;

communicating downlink control-plane data for the first cell served by the O-RAN DU from the virtualized headend to the one or more remote units used to serve the first cell over the switched Ethernet network; and

performing, by each of the at least some of the remote units used to serve the first cell, at least some physical layer baseband processing for a wireless interface used to serve the first cell.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising: using at least one of the remote units to serve the first cell using a first functional split and to serve a second cell using a second functional split; and

wherein the first functional split differs from the second functional split.

21. The method of claim 19 , further comprising: using at least one of the remote units to serve the first cell using a first wireless interface protocol and to serve a second cell using a second wireless interface protocol; and

wherein the first wireless interface protocol differs from the second wireless interface protocol.

22. The method of claim 19 , further comprising: using at least one of the remote units to serve the first cell using a first frequency band and to serve a second cell using a second frequency band; and

wherein the first frequency band differs from the second frequency band.

23. The method of claim 19 , wherein each of the plurality of remote units comprises:

a plurality of downlink multi-protocol modules, each of which including a plurality of downlink processing signal paths;

a plurality of uplink multi-protocol modules, each of which including a plurality of uplink processing signal paths;

a plurality of downlink radio modules, each of which including at least one downlink radio signal path;

a plurality of uplink radio modules, each of which including at least one uplink radio signal path;

a downlink in-phase and quadrature (IQ) stream switch to couple each downlink radio signal path to a respective one or more of the downlink processing signal paths;

an uplink in-phase and quadrature (IQ) stream switch to couple each uplink processing signal path to a respective one or more of the uplink radio signal paths;

control-plane functionality to process control-plane communications;

management-plane functionality to process management-plane communications; and

synchronization-plane functionality to process synchronization-plane communications in order to synchronize that unified remote unit to a master time base for the system.

24. The method of claim 19 , further comprising digitally summing, by the virtualized headend, uplink user-plane data received from said one or more remote units used to serve the first cell.