Modified architecture for cloud radio access networks and approach for compression of front-haul data

1. An enhanced Remote Radio Head (eRRH) configured to be used in in a Cloud-based Radio-access Network (C-RAN) in which base-band physical-layer processing is split between a Base-band Processing Unit (BBU) Pool and the eRRH, the eRRH comprising:

one or more processors;

an analog front end (AFE) configured to receive a radio signal from at least one user equipment (UE) via one or more antennas;

an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured to receive the radio signal from the AFE and digitize the radio signal; and

a control/data-splitter module configured to:

receive the digitized radio signal from the ADC,

perform cyclic prefix removal on the digitized radio signal using the one or more processors, and

identify a plurality of time-domain physical-uplink-shared-channel (PUSCH) phase/Quadrature (I/Q) samples in the digitized radio signal, the plurality of time-domain PUSCH I/Q samples corresponding to a plurality of PUSCH I/Q symbols, wherein the plurality of PUSCH I/Q symbols is associated with a physical resource block (PRB).

2. The eRRH of claim 1 , further comprising:

a fast-Fourier-transform (FFT) module configured to receive the plurality of time-domain PUSCH I/Q samples from the control/data-splitter module and perform a fast Fourier transform on the time-domain PUSCH I/Q samples to produce a plurality of frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q samples corresponding to the plurality of PUSCH I/Q symbols.

3. The eRRH of claim 2 , further comprising a bit-allocation module configured to:

receive user-scheduling side information from the BBU Pool via a front-haul link, the user-scheduling side information being associated with the (PRB); and

identify a number of bits to be allocated for each PUSCH I/Q symbol in the plurality of PUSCH I/Q symbols based on the user-scheduling side information.

4. The eRRH of claim 3 , further comprising a compression module configured to:

receive the plurality of frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q samples from the FFT module;

receive the number of bits to be used for each PUSCH I/Q symbol in the plurality of PUSCH I/Q symbols from the bit-allocation module; and

perform a lossy compression in which each frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q sample in the plurality of frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q samples corresponding to the plurality of PUSCH I/Q symbols is normalized and is quantized based on the number of bits received from the bit-allocation module.

5. The eRRH of claim 4 , wherein the compression module is further configured to normalize each frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q sample in the plurality of frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q samples to a value ranging from −1 to 1 by subtracting a mean value and using a scaling value.

6. The eRRH of claim 4 , wherein the compression module is further configured to apply uniform quantization to quantize each frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q sample in the plurality of frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q samples.

7. The eRRH of claim 4 , wherein the bit-allocation module is further configured to identify a number of bits to be used for each PUSCH I/Q symbol in the plurality of PUSCH I/Q symbols based on a modulation order contained in the user-scheduling side information.

8. The eRRH of claim 7 , wherein the bit allocation module is further configured to determine that the number of bits to be allocated for each PUSCH I/Q symbol is four bits per symbol when the modulation order is quadrature-phase-shift-keying (QPSK), five bits per symbol when the modulation order is 16-quadrature-amplitude-modulation (16-QAM), and six bits per symbol when the modulation order is 64-quadrature-amplitude-modulation (64-QAM).

9. The eRRH of claim 4 , wherein the compression module is further configured to perform a lossless compression in which a prefix-free code is applied to a plurality of bit subsets, each bit subset in the plurality of bit subsets being associated with a respective PUSCH I/Q sample in the plurality of PUSCH I/Q samples.

10. The eRRH of claim 9 , wherein each bit subset in the plurality of bit subsets comprises the two most significant bits (MSBs) of the respective frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q sample in the plurality of frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q samples.

11. The eRRH of claim 10 , using a Huffman code as the prefix-free code, wherein:

a value of 00 for the MSBs maps to a single coded bit having a value of 0;

a value of 01 for the MSBs maps to two coded bits having a value of 10;

a value of 10 for the MSBs maps to three coded bits having a value of 110; and

a value of 11 for the MSBs maps to four coded bits having a value of 111.

12. The eRRH of claim 3 , wherein the user-scheduling side information comprises one or more of: a user activity, a sub-carrier occupancy, a constellation or modulation on individual sub-carriers, a turbo coding rate, a number of users scheduled in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), a hybrid-automatic-repeat-request (HARQ) status, a target signal-to-interference-noise ratios (SINR), or an average bit/block error performance.

13. The eRRH of claim 1 , wherein the control/data-splitter module is further configured to identify reference signals, physical-uplink-control-channel (PUCCH) symbols, and a random-access-channel (RACH) signal in the radio signal and wherein the eRRH further comprises a reference-signal compression module configured to apply a compression technique different from a compression technique applied to the plurality of PUSCH symbols to at least one of the reference signals, the physical-uplink-control-channel (PUCCH) symbols, or the random-access-channel (RACH) signal.

14. A computer-readable medium having instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, perform the following:

receiving a radio signal at an enhanced remote radio head (eRRH);

performing a cyclic prefix removal on the radio signal at the eRRH;

identifying a plurality of time-domain physical-uplink-shared-channel (PUSCH) phase/Quadrature (I/Q) samples in the radio signal, the plurality of time-domain PUSCH I/Q samples corresponding to a plurality of PUSCH I/Q symbols, wherein the plurality of PUSCH I/Q symbols is associated with a physical resource block (PRB) in the radio signal; and

performing a fast Fourier transform on the plurality of time-domain PUSCH I/Q samples at the eRRH to produce a plurality of frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q samples corresponding to the plurality of PUSCH I/Q symbols.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 , further having instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, perform the following:

receiving user-scheduling side information at the eRRH from a BBU Pool or an evolved Node B (eNB) via a front-haul link, the user-scheduling side information being associated with the PRB; and

identifying a designated a number of bits to be used for each PUSCH I/Q symbol in the plurality of PUSCH I/Q symbols based on the user-scheduling side information at the eRRH.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the user-scheduling side information comprises one or more of: a user activity, a sub-carrier occupancy, a constellation or modulation on individual sub-carriers, a turbo coding rate, a numbers of users scheduled in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), a hybrid-automatic-repeat-request (HARQ) status, a target signal-to-interference-noise ratios (SINK), or an average bit/block error performance.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 , further having instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, perform the following:

identifying the designated number of bits to be used for each PUSCH I/Q symbol in the plurality of PUSCH I/Q symbols based on a modulation order contained in the user-scheduling side information.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 , further having instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, perform the following:

normalizing each frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q sample in the plurality of frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q samples, the plurality of frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q samples corresponding to the plurality of PUSCH I/Q symbols, at the eRRH;

performing a lossy frequency-domain compression at the eRRH in which each frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q sample in the plurality of frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q samples is discretized based on the designated number of bits.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 , further having instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, perform the following:

performing a lossless compression in which a prefix-free code is applied to a plurality of bit subsets, each bit subset in the plurality of bit subsets being associated with a respective frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q sample in the plurality of frequency-domain PUSCH I/Q samples.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein each bit subset in the plurality of bit subsets comprises the two most significant bits (MSBs) of the respective PUSCH I/Q sample with which the bit subset is associated.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 , wherein the prefix-free code is a Huffman code wherein:

a value of 00 for the MSBs maps to a single coded bit having a value of 0;

a value of 01 for the MSBs maps to two coded bits having a value of 10;

a value of 10 for the MSBs maps to three coded bits having a value of 110; and

a value of 11 for the MSBs maps to four coded bits having a value of 111.

22. An enhanced Remote Radio Head (eRRH) configured to be used in in a Cloud-based Radio-access Network (C-RAN) comprising:

an analog front end (AFE) configured to receive one or more radio signals from one or more user equipments (UEs) via one or more antennas;

a control/data splitter configured to separate user plane data symbols from reference symbols and control information in the one or more radio signals;

a bit allocation unit configured to receive scheduling side information for the one or more UEs and determine a quantization level for each user plane data symbol based on the scheduling side information; and

a compression unit configured to compress the user plane data symbols based on the quantization level to form compressed quantized samples to enable the compressed quantized samples to be communicated over a front-haul link to a base band unit.

23. The eRRH of claim 22 , wherein the bit allocation unit is further configured to determine the quantization level based on scheduling side information comprising one or more of: a user activity, a sub-carrier occupancy, a constellation or modulation on individual sub-carriers, a turbo coding rate, a number of users scheduled in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), a hybrid-automatic-repeat-request (HARQ) status, a target signal-to-interference-noise ratios (SINR), or an average bit/block error performance.

24. The eRRH of claim 22 , wherein the bit allocation unit is further configured to determine the quantization level for each data symbol in a physical resource block (PRB).

25. The eRRH of claim 22 , wherein the compression unit is further configured to perform a lossless compression in which a prefix-free code is applied to the compressed quantized samples.