Comparative Analysis of Fronthaul Delay in 5G C-RAN: The Case of Ethio Telecom Legehar Area
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Date
2025
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This thesis investigates fronthaul delay in 5G Centralized-Radio Access Network (C-RAN)
architecture, focusing on Ethio Telecom’s Legehar area. Fronthaul (FH) is the communication
link between the Radio Unit (RU) and Distributed Unit (DU). This research compares D-RAN
and C-RAN architecture to evaluate their delay performance.
The increasing demand for low latency has emphasized the need to analyze the fronthaul
delays in diverse scenarios, including Financial hubs, major event venues such as Stadium, and
Africa Union (AU) summits. C-RAN is a promising solution for meeting the growing demand
for high-speed, low-latency, and reliable wireless connectivity. Legehar and its surroundings
are key areas where delay affects users’ demands. The impact of delay on FH was demonstrated
by comparing and analyzing various network architectures and FH configurations.
Simulation and analytical techniques were used to analyze the delay characteristics.
The findings demonstrate that the C-RAN exhibits superior delay performance under specific
conditions, offering insights for optimizing 5G deployments. The simulation results show that
the eCPRI protocol performed better than the current Ethio Telecom used, known as CPRI.
Because the FH data rate impacts delay, CPRI uses the maximum data rate of 24.33 Gbps.
The delay for 24.33 Gbps is 0.493 μs. eCPRI at 50 Gbps rate can achieve a delay of 0.24 μs.
Additionally, there is a user plane delay that achieved to 0.48 μs by dividing plane.
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Keywords
5G Networks, eCPRI, C-RAN, D-RAN, NR, and FH delay