Analysis of Compression Techniques for 5G O-RAN Fronthaul Compression
Akter, Tahmina (2025)
2025
Sähkötekniikan DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Electrical Engineering
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2025-04-23
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202504213889
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202504213889
Tiivistelmä
This thesis compares and evaluates data compression techniques designed for 5G Open RAN (O-RAN) fronthaul systems, where efficient IQ data transmission is critical. Four compression techniques are compared: Block Floating Point (BFP), Block Scaling (BS), μ-law companding, and Modulation-Based Compression. These schemes are implemented in MATLAB and compared for different bit-widths and modulations (QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM) to see how they affect Compression Ratio (CR) and Error Vector Magnitude (EVM).
Results indicate that μ-law and modulation-based compression have larger CRs with degraded signal fidelity.However, BFP and BS yield an optimal balanced compromise between data compression and signal quality. A general MATLAB framework is also set to emulate 5G situations with easy adjustability of modulation schemes and compression methods.
This study contributes to the ongoing development of O-RAN systems via an actual evaluation system and design recommendations for selecting compression techniques that best meet system requirements. It further contributes to the development of O-RAN architectures for beyond-5G networks by optimizing transmission efficiency and signal integrity.
Results indicate that μ-law and modulation-based compression have larger CRs with degraded signal fidelity.However, BFP and BS yield an optimal balanced compromise between data compression and signal quality. A general MATLAB framework is also set to emulate 5G situations with easy adjustability of modulation schemes and compression methods.
This study contributes to the ongoing development of O-RAN systems via an actual evaluation system and design recommendations for selecting compression techniques that best meet system requirements. It further contributes to the development of O-RAN architectures for beyond-5G networks by optimizing transmission efficiency and signal integrity.