Cell-free mMIMO Support in the O-RAN Architecture: A PHY Layer Perspective for 5G and Beyond Networks

Abstract

To keep supporting next-generation requirements, the radio access infrastructure will increasingly densify. Cell-free (CF) network architectures are emerging, combining dense deployments with extreme flexibility in allocating resources to users. In parallel, the Open Radio Access Networks (O-RAN) paradigm is transforming RAN towards an open, intelligent, virtualized, and fully interoperable architecture. This paradigm brings the needed flexibility and intelligent control opportunities for CF networking. In this paper, we document the current O-RAN terminology and contrast it with some common CF processing approaches. We then discuss the main O-RAN innovations and research challenges that remain to be solved.

References in corpus (3)

• What should 6G be?
• Scalable Cell-Free Massive MIMO Systems
• Scalability Aspects of Cell-Free Massive MIMO

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• Cell-Free Data Power Control Via Scalable Multi-Objective Bayesian Optimisation
• O-RAN for Energy-Efficient Serving Cluster Formulation in User-Centric Cell-Free MMIMO
• Hybrid Network- and User-Centric Scalable Cell-Free Massive MIMO for Fronthaul Signaling Minimization