Previously published on Light Reading
Lately, weve focused on steps needed for operators to get their RAN ready for their next mobile technology evolutions -- including advanced 4G standards and, ultimately, 5G. (See Beyond CPRI: Planning for 5G Fronthaul and Preparing the Transport Network for 5G: The Future Is Fiber.)
While the industry continues to debate the pros and cons of technologies (Ethernet vs. CPRI) and architectures (distributed RAN vs. centralized RAN), they must not lose track of the basic, practical steps that should also be taken along the way. In this blog, we discuss the importance of BBU emulation as part of the overall test process for turning up cell sites.
In today's mobile networks, the base transceiver station (BTS) has been separated into two components -- the remote radio head (RRH) located at the top of the cell tower next to the antennas and the baseband unit (BBU) below. In most 4G networks, the BBUs typically sit at the base of the tower. The newest trend in 4G -- and certainly with 5G -- is to centralize BBUs in central offices, several kilometers away from the cell towers. This is called centralized RAN, or C-RAN.
Significantly, whether building out distributed RANs or new centralized RANs, BBU emulation is an important part of the turn-up process, along with connector inspection and fiber characterization. In cell site construction (whether distributed RAN or C-RAN), BBUs may not be installed or commissioned until after the cell tower is handed over to the mobile network operator. At this point, the mobile operator may find that cell tower transmissions aren't working properly -- or at all -- and a time-consuming and costly process ensues to find the cause of the transmission degradation or failure.
Ideally, cell tower installers would have the tools available at the time of installation to ensure that, when the mobile operators deploy their BBUs, all cell tower components and connections will be in working order. BBU emulation accomplishes this goal by imitating BBU transmission and RRH communication without requiring an actual BBU in the network. Here are some important tests that installers can perform by adding this relatively simple testing step:
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To be clear, each of the problems detected by BBU emulation could also be diagnosed by the mobile operator once the BBU is commissioned at the tower. The value in BBU emulation lies in detecting faults during installation and prior to commissioning to avoid lengthy and costly delays in service turn-up and help them generate new revenue streams faster.
I have a question and hope I can get it answered. Verizon support sure can't seem to give me a straight one....
I have the BBU in my garage. It was there when I moved into this home ~8 yrs ago. I had FIOS service installed this past week. (For some reason, Verizon support can not understand that the BBU was already there and I never had Verizon service until this past week.)
I did not notice when the installer was here, but the red light on the BBU is on indicating the battery needs to be replaced. He never explained a thing about the BBU to me. After sever lengthy chats and calls to support, I believe a new battery is finally on it's way. Reading through this thread I now wonder if I even need the BBU. I do NOT have a land line -- only cellular service. My plan consists solely of TV and Internet service. If I unplug the BBU will this affect my service? At one time I thought it only was for , but now I'm not sure.
Any help will be greatly appreciated. I'm really curious to know if / when I do replace the battery, will my TV boxes and router simply reboot and go back to operating or do I need to do something else to get operational assuming the BBU also affects TV and Internet. Sorry for these convoluted questions....lol TIA for help and advice......
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