Capturing Packets Through eCPRI V2.0 which Enables 5G!

Capturing Packets Through eCPRI V2.0 which Enables 5G!

There has been nothing more than 5G network technology being mentioned in year 2019 with its development thought to enrich the globalized telecommunication ecosystem.

The underlying specification for 5G is released on 10th May 2019, named eCPRI V2.0 (available here free ) enhances and supports for 5G front-haul by providing functionality to its precursor, CPRI V7.0 over Ethernet allowing CPRI and eCPRI interworking. One of the key specification of eCPRI V2.0 is decreasing data rate demand by almost 10 fold via flexible functional decomposition. The character “e” in eCPRI is meant for “enhanced” rather than “ethernet”, however eCPRI encourages the use of Ethernet / IP technology, special mention about UDP as transport protocol, thus making a pathway for network packet capturing.

Figure 1 eCPRI Protocol Stack over Ethernet / IP

As ComWorth specialized in network packet capturing, we are proud to provide our capture appliance, Sirius NDR as a solution for capturing the Ethernet based system architecture of eCPRI. The flexible functional decomposition idea is achieved by decompose radio base station into 2 basic building blocks, eCPRI Radio Equipment Control (eREC) and eCPRI Radio Equipment (eRE) where both are physically separated, while connected via transport network (Figure 2).

Figure 2 General 5G System with eCPRI V2.0

The user plane data which is the information flow between eREC and eRE are packetized, multiplexed and transferred over the transport network (fronthaul network - orange cloud, Figure 3).

Figure 3 Local eCPRI and IWF Type 0, 1, 2 System Architecture

To serve the market for the need of 5G capture, test and measurement via Ethernet / IP, Sirius NDR fits perfectly into such environment with success deployments across the Japan market.

Following are the Sirius NDR capturing capabilities:

Fronthaul eCPRI

#1 - 4 x 25G BiDi Single-mode fiber (with or without RS-FEC, IEEE802.3cc)

#2 - 8 x 10G BiDi Single-mode fiber

Backhaul CPRI (Core Network)*

#1 - 8 x 10G Multi-mode fiber (LC connector)

#2 - 8 x 10G Single-mode fiber (LC connector)

* Depend on actual environment, we use 10G as example, 100G will be common in future.

By using Sirius NDR, the packets of the fronthaul and backhaul network’s devices under test (DUT) can be all captured simultaneously using a single solution! Furthermore, Sirius NDR offers 25G IEEE 802.3by Reed-Solomon Forward Error Correction (RS-FEC) via FPGA as required from the actual deployments. This is absolutely first kind of innovation in the industry, which was proudly initiated and configured by ComWorth. Of course, as fronthaul network grows, Sirius NDR can easily switch mode to capture up to 100G link as well as storage. Here’s additional of Sirius NDR specialty when it comes to 25GbE.

Figure 4 Sirius NDR Capture Support for 25GbE With FEC

As always, we welcome any kind of your valuable feedback or queries regarding Sirius NDR product!

Happy capturing and hopefully you gain a little bit of understanding regarding to 5G underlying reason to get so much attention.

Reference: http://www.cpri.info/downloads/eCPRI_v_2.0_2019_05_10c.pdf

Written by the Commworth Team!

#Commworth #5G #CapturingPackets #eCPRI