Network architectures for CPRI backhauling

Mobile networks evolution is heavily driven by the increasing diffusion of broad-band wireless devices. The quickly growing traffic has to be managed by operators drastically reducing CAPEX and OPEX of their networks per transported bandwidth unit: in some cases this may imply the adoption of revolutionary, more than evolutionary approaches. Under this extent, an important case is CPRI backhauling: a new network paradigm implying centralization of mobile base-band units. The paper describes different functional and physical architectures for CPRI backhauling, comparing them under different CAPEX and OPEX impacting aspects.