Allocation of baseband unit resources in fifth generation networks and beyond

A method, comprising:

• obtaining, by network equipment comprising a processor, a random access channel message from a user equipment served by a first radio unit in an idle state in which no active distributed unit is associated with the first radio unit;
• directing, by the network equipment, the random access channel message to a random access channel message handler;
• associating, by the network equipment, the first radio unit with a distributed unit to change the first radio unit from the idle state to an active state, wherein the distributed unit and the random access channel message handler are incorporated into a distributed unit service;
• returning, by the network equipment, a response message to the user equipment via the first radio unit;
• communicating, by the network equipment, first control information and data to the user equipment via the distributed unit and the first radio unit;
• performing, by the network equipment, a handover of the user equipment to a second radio unit, comprising associating the distributed unit with the second radio unit to handle communications with the second radio unit;
• in response to determining that the first radio unit has entered an idle state:
• disassociating, by the network equipment, the distributed unit from the first radio unit, and
• broadcasting, by the network equipment, second control information from a broadcast component of the distributed unit service to the first radio unit.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of network equipment, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:

• receiving a random access channel message from a user equipment served by a radio unit;
• determining, based on an identity of the radio unit, that no distributed unit is actively associated with the radio unit, wherein the identity of the radio unit corresponds to a media access control address of the radio unit, and the determining that no distributed unit is actively associated with the radio unit comprises accessing a mapping data structure that relates active distributed units to media access control addresses of radio units;
• in response to the determining that no distributed unit is actively associated with the radio unit, associating a distributed unit with the radio unit to handle communications with the radio unit, and returning a random access channel response message via the distributed unit and the radio unit to the user equipment, wherein associating the distributed unit with the radio unit comprises:
• directing the random access channel message to a physical random access channel handler machine;
• determining at the physical random access channel handler that insufficient distributed unit capacity exists;
• instantiating a new distributed unit on the network equipment to increase distributed unit capacity;
• assigning the new distributed unit as the distributed unit associated with the radio unit;
• and
• maintaining the mapping data structure to relate the new distributed unit to the radio unit.