BACKGROUND

Centralized baseband processing was introduced several years ago to ease installation of wireless base stations in large buildings and on campuses. This was enabled by digital radio interfaces and remote radio heads (RRHs) which allowed the connection between RRHs and digital baseband units (BBUs) to be carried over fiber. The concept has subsequently been generalized to span larger areas involving many radio sites and still using a central BBU. In increasing the deployment footprint, fiber and availability of required fronthauls (FHs) became a major problem.

In recent years, 3GPP and other standards bodies started different activities to address this issue. By distributing protocol stacks between different components (different splits), solution providers focus to address the tight requirements for a near perfect FH between RRHs and BBUs. However, the approach of the standards bodies has been to provide multiple potential options, leaving network operators at the mercy of equipment vendors' assessment of their likely fronthaul needs.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods for Radio Access Network dynamic functional splits are described. In one embodiment, a method may be disclosed for Radio Access Network dynamic functional splits, comprising: determining, by a user for a RAN, a first split of different functionalities between a central Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU), the functionalities including a Radio Resource Controller (RRC), a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), a Radio Link Control (RLC); a Medium Access control (MAC), a Physical Layer (PHY), and a Radio Frequency Unit (RF); and wherein the system is able to provide different splits of the functionalities based on factors such as user count, fronthaul capacity, fronthaul usage, required baseband processing capacity, and latency.

In another example embodiment, a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions for providing Radio Access Network (RAN) dynamic functional splits is de-scribed which, when executed, cause the system to perform steps comprising: determining, by a user for a RAN, a first split of different functionalities between a central Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU), the functionalities including a Radio Resource Controller (RRC), a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), a Radio Link Control (RLC); a Medium Access control (MAC), a Physical Layer (PHY), and a Radio Frequency Unit (RF); and wherein the system is able to provide different splits of the functionalities.

In another example embodiment, a system for providing Radio Access Network (RAN) dynamic functional splits is described. The system includes a converged wireless system (CWS); a HetNet Gateway (HNG) in communication with the CWS; wherein a user is enabled to determine a first split of different functionalities between a central Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU), the functionalities including a Radio Resource Controller (RRC), a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), a Radio Link Control (RLC); a Medium Access control (MAC), a Physical Layer (PHY), and a Radio Frequency Unit (RF); and wherein the system is able to provide different splits of the functionalities.

