Page 15 - 3GPP Highlights

SMALL CELL FORUM DRIVING

OPEN 5G RAN/SCN PRODUCTS

& NETWORKS

By Prabhakar Chitrapu, Chair of SCF

SCF’s comprehensive suite of 5G FAPI/ architecture, namely the Radio Unit • P5 & P7 interfaces: Control and Data
nFAPI (functional API) specifications (named by SCF as S-RU) and Distributed path interfaces between MAC & PHY
stimulates innovation and competition Unit (named by SCF as S-DU). The 5G-FAPI layers respectively
across the small cell ecosystem by specification suite has been published • P19 interface: Control interface
supporting multivendor interoperability recently, while the 5G-nFAPI specification between the L2/L3 software and RF
within Small Cell Products and between suite is under active development. In the Front-End-Unit (FEU)
different products of Small Cell Networks, latter, SCF is collaborating with other
architected in consistence with 3GPP’s organizations such as O-RAN Alliance •P4 interface: “Sensing” interface for the
disaggregated functional-splits. and OAI. Network Monitor/listen Mode (NMM)
Specifically, the suite of open 5G-FAPI SCF’s 5G-FAPI suite of specifications function.
specifications enable multi-vendor is the result of intensive cooperation
interoperability between vendors that across the ecosystem by a team led by Together, these interfaces, comprising the
provide the silicon chipsets and protocol Intel and Qualcomm. The suite consists 5G-FAPI suite of specifications, provide
software that go into Small Cell Products. of 3 interfaces, named as P4, P5, P7 & a robust set of APIs to enable fully open,
Similarly, 5G-nFAPI suite of open P19, between the software layers that multivendor 5G small cell designs down
specifications enables interoperability implement the MAC & upper protocol to chip level. The figure below illustrates
between vendors of different products layers and hardware that implement the these interfaces and the structure of the
of the 3GPP Split-Option-6 based RAN 5G-FAPI specifications.
PHY & RF layers of a 5G-Small Cell.

Small cell internal architecture The 5G-FAPI suite enhances the existing
set of 3G and 4G specifications, which have
played a significant part in growing the
market for small cells by enabling a broad
multivendor ecosystem. The development
of the 5G FAPI suite is a proud achievement
for the Forum and its members.
As mentioned at the beginning,
a complementary suite of open
specifications, namely 5G-nFAPI, is being
actively developed by a broad spectrum of
hardware and software vendors within the
Forum. Active collaboration with O-RAN
is being used to maximize the alignment
between the specifications of both
organizations. The figure here (left) defines
SON (Self Organising Networks), MAC (Medium Access Control), NMM (Network Monitor Mode) the Disaggregated 5G-SCN architecture
FEU (Front End Unit) including DFE (Digital Front End) and ABF (Analog Beam Forming)
based on 3GPP’s split-option-6, SCF’s
5G-nFAPI interface and SCF’s product
terminology (S-RU, S-DU, S-CU).
www.smallcellforum.org/5g-fapi-suite/

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Issue 01 - September 2020 15