Why CPRI is not used in 5G Network?
April 3, 2023

As I received many messages during the last week about the eCPRI topic in 5G and OpenRAN, I prepared some notes about this.

  • eCPRI is replacing the CPRI protocol in 5G to reduce the bandwidth BW requirements of CPRI transport and making Fronthaul affordable and available for all mobile network operators.
  • It improves transport efficiency to match the Speed and the bandwidth of 5G fronthaul networks. Also, it supports functional split 7 and flexible bandwidth scaling according to User plane traffic.

eCPRI doesn’t depend on a specific transport network layer topology and its specification identifies Ethernet and IP as two transport options for a User plane. It also supports logical connections, Point-to-Point (One RRU <> One DU), and Point-to-Multipoint (One DU <> Several RRUs).

Besides eCPRI, RRU and DU should support other transport networks protocols like PTP and SyncE for Synchronization [Frame and time alignment]

eCPRI Protocol

User plane data, control, management, and synchronization signals are packetized, multiplexed, and transferred over the transport network between RRU and DU.

📕 Why does 5G needs to move from CPRI to eCPRI?

📕 The Evolution from 4G to 5G by CPRI to eCPRI Transformation

📕 What are C/U/M/S Fronthaul (FH) Planes in ORAN?

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