Reducing Total Cost of Ownership With RF ROUTER – TCO Comparison of C-RAN and RF ROUTER
A comparison of total cost of ownership (TCO) for a C-RAN and a RF Router solution has been calculated on the basis of an existing typical airport campus, applying identical business requirements for both solutions.
• Compared to a C-RAN solution under same conditions, the RF Router solution offers
typically 30…40% better TCO performance over a 3-year period. Up to 60% better
TCO can be achieved for multi-operator use cases.
• Evaluating just initial CAPEX provides an incomplete picture – it’s an OPEX game.
• Hidden costs of operational complexity are a major contributor to TCO
• C-RAN is currently mentioned only in 4G context. Nothing prevents from deploying this architecture also in 3G or 2G, but no known commercial products are available to date.
• C-RAN requires all base stations to be collocated in a single location due to mechanical coupling of baseband units. A RF Router based solution can be distributed over a wide area with up to 40 km distance between base station locations. In addition to the cost benefit, scalability and elasticity of the RF Router solution unlocks new business opportunities for operators by enabling a virtualized radio access network (v-RAN).