Key Findings
The report has the following key findings:
• Expected to surpass $7 Billion in global spending by the end of 2016, C-RAN is
increasingly becoming the preferred approach to deploy future mobile
networks for both macro and small cell coverage. The market is further
expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 20% between 2016 and 2020.
• To alleviate stringent fronthaul requirements, an increasing number of C-RAN
solutions are now utilizing RRHs with baseband capabilities, allowing some
intelligence (primarily Layer 1 and Layer 2) to be distributed among RRHs, with
Layer 3 functionality residing at centralized BBUs.
• The ongoing 5G race is expected to significantly boost C-RAN investments over
the coming years. SNS Research estimates that over $1 Billion of all C-RAN
architecture network investments will be directed towards 5G networks by the
end of 2020.
• At present, most virtualized Cloud RAN investments are limited to trials and
demonstrations. However, by the end of 2020, we expect that virtualized BBUs
will account for over 6% of all C-RAN BBU investments.
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