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US-12621739-B2 - Systems and methods for front haul traffic processing on radio units and distributed baseband units

US12621739B2US 12621739 B2US12621739 B2US 12621739B2US-12621739-B2

Abstract

Enhanced Common Packet Radio Interface (eCPRI) based Fronthaul forms the foundation for open radio access network (O-RAN). O-RAN envisages splitting the radio into two parts, a Distributed Unit (DU) and Radio Units (RU), interconnected using high speed Fronthaul links. O-RAN and eCPRI for 5G/NR place demands for high speed Fronthaul with low latency, and high network bandwidth requirements. In the present disclosure, embodiments for configurable eCPRI Fronthaul solutions are disclosed. Various hardware accelerator implementations are presented for control plane and user plane traffic. The hardware accelerator implementation may support DU and RRU functionality required by eCPRI with minimal software intervention. The configurable eCPRI Fronthaul may support different data flows and meet different performance demands of DU and RRU. Scalable architecture may be applied for the configurable eCPRI Fronthaul to allow stacking of multiple hardware accelerators via a high-speed network interconnect, and overall performance and throughput may be improved.

Inventors

  • Vivek Goyal
  • Gopalakrishnan Perur Krishnan

Assignees

  • EdgeQ, Inc.

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20230310

Claims (16)

  1. 1 . A device for Fronthaul communication comprising: an enhanced common packet radio interface (eCPRI) network-on-chip (NOC) circuit as a network interconnection interface for data flows receiving and transmitting; a memory subsystem for data transmitting; a memory subsystem for data receiving; multiple eCPRI hardware agents coupled to the memory subsystem for data transmitting and the memory subsystem for data receiving for data processing in a transmitting path and in a receiving path respectively, each eCPRI hardware agent comprises an internal SU for operation control, an internal control unit (CU), a protocol unit (PU), and one or more direct memory access (DMA) engines for memory access operations; and a control scalar unit (SU) block that delineates received data flows, transferred from the eCPRI NOC circuit, to the memory subsystem for data receiving for data processing among the multiple eCPRI hardware agents; and wherein the device is a distributed unit (DU) or a radio unit (RU).
  2. 2 . The device of claim 1 , wherein each eCPRI hardware agent is configured to handle data processing for one corresponding frequency band, one carrier, or one radio access technology (RAT).
  3. 3 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the control SU block comprises multiple SUs, the control SU block delineates receiving data flows using a data decoder block corresponding for each of the multiple SUs within the control SU block.
  4. 4 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the eCPRI NOC circuit couples to the multiple eCPRI hardware agents for data movement among the multiple hardware agents via the eCPRI NOC circuit.
  5. 5 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more DMA engines comprise an input control/user plane (C/U Plane) command DMA reader, an input synchronization plane (S Plane) command DMA reader, an output queue writer, and a data mover.
  6. 6 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more DMA engines comprise a multi-channel DMA engine with each channel independently configured to support different data planes.
  7. 7 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the internal SU in each eCPRI hardware agent handles eCPRI transmitting data flows directly.
  8. 8 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the CU further communicates with the one or more DMA engines and the PU via side-band signals that are employed to carry non-standardized information, which is not formally defined in one or more communication protocols but permitted for extensibility purposes.
  9. 9 . A method for Fronthaul communication comprising: receiving, via an enhanced common packet radio interface (eCPRI) network-on-chip (NOC) circuit in a communication device, data flows in a receiving path, the communication device is a distributed unit (DU) or a radio unit (RU); delineating, at a control scalar unit (SU) block in the communication device, the received data flows transferred from the eCPRI NOC circuit to a memory subsystem for data receiving; and processing, among multiple eCPRI hardware agents in the communication device, the delineated data flows for data processing, each eCPRI hardware agent comprises an internal SU for operation control, an internal control unit (CU), a protocol unit (PU), and one or more direct memory access (DMA) engines for memory access operations.
  10. 10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein each eCPRI hardware agent is configured to handle data processing for one corresponding frequency band, one carrier, or one radio access technology (RAT).
  11. 11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the control SU block comprises multiple SUS, the control SU block delineates the received data flows using a data decoder block corresponding for each of the multiple SUs within the control SU block.
  12. 12 . The method of claim 9 further comprising: implementing data movement among the multiple hardware agents via the eCPRI NOC circuit.
  13. 13 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more DMA engines comprise an input control/user plane (C/U Plane) command DMA reader, an input synchronization plane (S Plane) command DMA reader, an output queue writer, and a data mover.
  14. 14 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more DMA engines comprise a multi-channel DMA engine with each channel independently configured to support different data planes.
  15. 15 . The method of claim 9 further comprising: handling, using the internal SU in each eCPRI hardware agent, eCPRI transmitting data flows that are transmitted from a memory subsystem for data transmitting.
  16. 16 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the internal SU is a general-purpose processor or processing core.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS This application is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/467,211, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR FRONT HAUL TRAFFIC PROCESSING ON RADIO UNITS AND DISTRIBUTED BASEBAND UNITS”, naming inventors as Vivek Goyal and Gopalakrishnan Perur Krishnan, and filed on Sep. 4, 2021, which application is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for front haul traffic processing. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods to reduce area and latency for front haul traffic processing on radio units and distributed baseband units. BACKGROUND The importance of wireless communication in today's society is well understood by one of skill in the art. Advances in wireless technologies have resulted in the ability of a communication system to support wireless communications of different standards, e.g., 5G New Radio (NR), 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, etc. Different wireless standards have aspects which are very different from each other—fundamental frame structures, timing of symbols, forward error correction (FEC) codes, data rates, tolerance to delays. Enhanced Common Packet Radio Interface (eCPRI) based Fronthaul forms the foundation for next generation Radio Access Network (RAN) technologies, including open radio access network (O-RAN). O-RAN envisages splitting the radio into two parts, a Distributed Unit (DU) and Remote Radio Units (RRU or RU), interconnected using high speed Fronthaul links. O-RAN and eCPRI for 5G/NR place demands for high speed Fronthaul with low latency, and high network bandwidth requirements. The eCPRI packet encapsulation and decapsulation on DU and RU require hardware acceleration to meet the high performance and low latency demands. Accordingly, what is needed are systems, devices and methods that meet the above-described requirements for high speed Fronthaul with low latency, and high network bandwidth. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS References will be made to embodiments of the disclosure, examples of which may be illustrated in the accompanying figures. These figures are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Although the accompanying disclosure is generally described in the context of these embodiments, it should be understood that it is not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure to these particular embodiments. Items in the figures may not be to scale. FIG. 1 (“FIG. 1”) depicts various open radio access network (RAN) deployments for a telecommunication service provider, according to embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of a device for eCPRI based Fronthaul communication, according to embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram for a hardware agent, according to embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 4 depicts a block diagram for eCPRI communication between a DU and an RU, according to embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 5 depicts a process for eCPRI communication between a DU and an RU, according to embodiments of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS In the following description, for purposes of explanation, specific details are set forth in order to provide an understanding of the disclosure. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the disclosure can be practiced without these details. Furthermore, one skilled in the art will recognize that embodiments of the present disclosure, described below, may be implemented in a variety of ways, such as a process, an apparatus, a system/device, or a method on a tangible computer-readable medium. Components, or modules, shown in diagrams are illustrative of exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and are meant to avoid obscuring the disclosure. It shall also be understood that throughout this discussion that components may be described as separate functional units, which may comprise sub-units, but those skilled in the art will recognize that various components, or portions thereof, may be divided into separate components or may be integrated together, including, for example, being in a single system or component. It should be noted that functions or operations discussed herein may be implemented as components. Components may be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. Furthermore, connections between components or systems within the figures are not intended to be limited to direct connections. Rather, data between these components may be modified, re-formatted, or otherwise changed by intermediary components. Also, additional or fewer connections may be used. It shall also be noted that the terms “coupled,” “connected,” “communicatively coupled,” “interfacing,” “interface,” or any of their derivatives shall be understood to include direct connections, indirect connections through one or more intermediary devices, and wirele