RF Router – The Enabler of RAN Virtualization
Mobile data traffic is growing exponentially. This is mainly driven by video and web applications. With today’s network architecture, mobile operators are forced to increase capital (CAPEX) and operational (OPEX) to address the capacity increase. However, as networks move from being coverage-centric to capacity-centric, the increased in revenue is not keeping pace with the increased in capital expenditure.
With the forecasted future mobile network capacity requirements and the decreased revenue margin, mobile operators are looking at network sharing or virtualization as a key business model going forward to handle the increased in traffic volumes while reducing future deployment and operational cost.
In this paper, we will examine how Radio Access Network can be virtualized, and the benefits RAN virtualization brings to mobile operators and enterprise users.