Oliva Delgado, Antonio de laHernández Gutiérrez, José AlbertoLarrabeiti López, DavidAzcorra Saloña, Arturo2017-06-052017-06-052016-02-11IEEE Communications Magazine, 2016, 54 (2), pp. 152-159.0163-6804https://hdl.handle.net/10016/24631The CPRI specification has been introduced to enable the communication between radio equipment and radio equipment controllers, and is of particular interest for mobile operators willing to deploy their networks following the novel cloud radio access network approach. In such a case, CPRI provides an interface for the interconnection of remote radio heads with a baseband unit by means of the so-called fronthaul network. This article presents the CPRI specification, its concept, design, and interfaces, provides a use case for fronthaul dimensioning in a realistic LTE scenario, and proposes some interesting open research challenges in the next-generation 5G mobile network.8application/pdfeng© 2016 IEEEOFDMSynchronizationLong Term EvolutionMobile communicationBandwidthNext-generation 5G mobile networkCPRI specificationC-RAN-based LTE scenariosRadio equipmentCloud radio access networkRemote radio headsBaseband unitresearch articleTelecomunicacioneshttps://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2016.7402275open access1522159IEEE Communications Magazine54AR/0000019661