Cost models for BaseBand Unit (BBU) hotelling: From local to cloud

In this work we model and compare three different strategies for BaseBand Unit (BBU) hotelling: BBU stacking, BBU pooling, and Cloud RAN. We propose the building-block models for every strategy and elaborate on a cost model in order to evaluate their benefits. We also propose shelf and rack design for the implementation of the presented models. The assessment includes cost comparisons and sensitivity analysis with respect to pooling and virtualization gains. We obtain that the best option in terms of cost savings is the cloud-based BBU hotel. However, we show that, under equal pooling gains, the benefits are mainly based on the implementation of the technology and the shelf/rack design.