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The article analyzes the total cost of ownership (TCO) of 5G fronthauling solutions based on analog and digital radio-over-fiber (RoF) architectures in cloud radio access networks (C-RANs). The capital and operational expenditures (CAPEX, OPEX) are assessed, for a 10-year period, considering three different RoF techniques: intermediate frequency analog RoF (IF-A-RoF), digital signal processing (DSP) assisted analog RoF (DSP-A-RoF), and digital RoF (D-RoF) based on the common public radio interface (CPRI) specifications. The greenfield deployment scenario under exam includes both fiber trenching (FT) and fiber leasing (FL) options. The TCO is assessed while varying (i) the number of aggregated subcarriers, (ii) the number of three-sector antennas located at the base station, and (iii) the mean fiber-hop length. The comparison highlights the significance that subcarrier aggregation has on the cost efficiency of the analog RoF solutions. In addition, the analysis details the contribution of each cost category to the overall CAPEX and OPEX values. The obtained results indicate that subcarrier aggregation via DSP results in high cost efficiency for a mobile fronthaul network, while a CPRI-based architecture together with FL brings the highest OPEX value.

This paper provides an assessment of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a number of 5G fronthauling solutions based on digital and analog radio-over-fiber (RoF) architectures in cloud radio access network (C-RAN). We computed the capital and operational expenditures (CAPEX, OPEX) in the case of an optical fiber aggregation network based on a ring topology. Three different RoF architectures were considered: intermediate frequency analog RoF (IF-A-RoF), digital signal processing assisted analog RoF (DSP-A-RoF), and digital RoF (D-RoF) based on the common public radio interface (CPRI). A greenfield scenario considering both fiber deployment and fiber leasing was analyzed. The results presented in the paper show how the TCO changes with the number of aggregated carriers for the considered RoF architectures and fiber deployment strategy. They also reveal the impact that each cost category has on the overall CAPEX and OPEX value.