From the course: Telecom Network Evolution: 2G-to-6G Technologies, Architecture, and Key Concepts

Evolution in transport network

From the course: Telecom Network Evolution: 2G-to-6G Technologies, Architecture, and Key Concepts

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Evolution in transport network

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(upbeat music) - [Instructor] 5G introduces massive increase in both performance expectations and service diversity. For example, the peak data rates are going up to 20 times higher than in 4G and the latency must be 10 times lower, especially for ultra-reliable low latency communication. Now to meet these demands, 5G introduces evolved transport network architecture, three distinct segments. One is the front hall, second is mid hall, and third is back hall. Now in 5G, the traditional SIPRI interface is replaced with enhanced SIPRI in this case to address new requirements. It supports up to 50 Gbps of throughput. The latency here can be achieved as low as 0.1 millisecond. It is more efficient and packet-based, which is reducing bandwidth overhead compared to the legacy SIPRI protocol. It carries only selected functions because of the function splitting between RU and DU. And this allows more flexible deployment of DU at cell sites or at edge locations. Now the new segment in case of 5G is the mid hall, which makes the connectivity between the distributed unit and the central unit. It can be implemented over fiber or wireless microwave links. While less latency sensitive than front hall, it still has important performance requirements. It has a data rate requirement up to 10 Gbps and latency as below as two milliseconds. The distance between the DU and the CU can extend up to 200 kilometer depending upon the different deployment scenarios. If we look at the back hall, which connects the central unit with the core network, in this case, the 5G aggregates a higher volume of user and service traffic at the edge. So back hall must support the data rates up to 100 Gbps and latency under 10 millisecond. And this segment carries aggregated traffic from multiple cell sites and is crucial for service continuity, the mobility and core level policy enforcement. So in summary, if you see, we have the front hall, mid hall and back hall segment in transport network where the new segment mid hall has been incorporated. Here, the protocol has been changed from CIPRI to eCIPRI where the throughput can go up to 50 Gbps based on this protocol's capability. The latency can go as low as 0.1 millisecond, which is crucial for the real time transmission. For mid hall, which is connecting DU to CU has a moderate latency tolerance, which is less than two millisecond. And when we have the back hall, which is aggregating all the traffic, it has the throughput requirement of 100 Gbps. It can be fiber, it can be IP, it can be MPLS. So if you see this evolution from a single transport path in 4G to segmented performance tiered architecture in 5G is essential to meeting diverse service requirements.

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