VRAN with PCIe fronthaul

1. A method for providing fronthaul, comprising:

providing a virtual Radio Access Network (vRAN) having a centralized unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU); and

interconnecting the CU and DU over an Input/Output (I/O) bus using Peripheral Component Interconnect-Express (PCIe);

wherein the CU and the DU include a PCI to optical converter and an optical to PCI converter; and

wherein the vRAN uses 2G/3G waveforms over a 4G frequency or 2G/3G/4G waveforms over a 5G frequency.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing additional DUs in communication with the CU over the I/O bus.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing a CU further comprises providing the CU as a PCIe master.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing a DU further comprises providing the DU as a PCIe slave.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the DU and CU are provided as at least one of a 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G network.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing real-time data rate hit debug information between the CU and the DU using the PCIe mirrored memory capability.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing side information to IQ sample streams.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing frame synchronization between the CU and the DU using the PCIe mirrored memory capability.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions for providing fronthaul which, when executed, cause a system to perform steps comprising:

providing a virtual Radio Access Network (vRAN) having a centralized unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU);

interconnecting the CU and DU over an Input/Output (I/O) bus using Peripheral Component Interconnect-Express (PCIe);

wherein the CU and the DU include a PCI to optical converter and an optical to PCI converter; and

wherein the vRAN uses 2G/3G waveforms over a 4G frequency or 2G/3G/4G waveforms over a 5G frequency.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 , further comprising instructions for providing additional DUs in communication with the CU over the I/O bus.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein instructions for providing a CU further comprises instructions for providing the CU as a PCIe master.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein instructions for providing a DU further comprises instructions for providing the DU as a PCIe slave.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 , further comprising for wherein the DU and CU are provided as at least one of a 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G network.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 , further comprising instructions for providing real-time data rate hit debug information between the CU and the DU using the PCIe mirrored memory capability.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 , further comprising instructions for providing side information to IQ sample streams.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 , further comprising instructions for providing frame synchronization between the CU and the DU using the PCIe mirrored memory capability.

17. A system for providing fronthaul, comprising:

a virtual Radio Access Network (vRAN) having a centralized unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU);

wherein the CU and DU are in communication with each other over an Input/Output (I/O) bus using Peripheral Component Interconnect-Express (PCIe);

wherein the CU and the DU include a PCI to optical converter and an optical to PCI converter; and

wherein the vRAN uses 2G/3G waveforms over a 4G frequency or 2G/3G/4G waveforms over a 5G frequency.

18. The system of claim 17 , further comprising additional DUs in communication with the CU over the I/O bus.

19. The system of claim 17 , wherein the system is part of at least one of a 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G network.

20. The system of claim 17 , wherein the PCIe mirrored memory capability is used to provide real-time data rate hit debug information between the CU and the DU and to provide frame synchronization between the CU and the DU.