Dynamic IQ data compression using wireless resource allocation for mobile front-haul with TDM-PON [invited]

The time-division multiplexed-passive optical network (TDM-PON) architecture can efficiently accommodate densely deployed small cells in a centralized radio access network (C-RAN)-based future radio access (FRA). C-RAN is a type of mobile front-haul network, which connects multiple remote radio heads to a baseband unit pool by optical links. The required optical bandwidth in the mobile front-haul of FRA is very large, so it is necessary to efficiently use the optical bandwidth by using in-phase and quadrature-phase (IQ) data compression techniques. This paper proposes an IQ data compression technique that dynamically reduces the required optical bandwidth based on wireless resource allocation, and provides TDM-PON with statistical multiplexing gain. Simulation results showed the achievable compression ratio of the proposed IQ data compression technique. The feasibility of our technique was confirmed by experiments. The reduction in the average TDM-PON bandwidth was 50% when there were 60 mobile terminals, all of which required 0.18 Mbps bandwidth.