Cloud radio access networks (C-RANs) emerge as appealing
architectures for next-generation wireless/cellular systems whereby the
processing/decoding is migrated from the local base-stations/radio units (RU) to a control/centralunits (CU) in the *cloud*. This is facilitated by fronthaul links connecting the RUs to the managing CUs.
The high data rate service demands in C-RANs, imply that the bottleneck of
the system is associated with the fronthaul processing and that is even
with fast (optical) fronthaul links.
In this talk we focus on advanced robust signal processing solutions, emerging by network information theoretic concepts, and review also the basic approaches to this cloud network.
Analysis and numerical results illustrate the considerable performance gains to be expected for different cellular models.
Interesting theoretical directions conclude the presentation.
