Link establishment between a radio equipment controller (REC) and radio equipment (RE) in a fronthaul network

A proxy slave system for use in a fronthaul network environment comprising a radio equipment connected to a proxy master, the proxy slave system connected to a radio equipment controller, and a fronthaul Ethernet network connecting the proxy master and the proxy slave system and for establishing a Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) link between the radio equipment controller and the radio equipment over the fronthaul Ethernet network;

• the proxy slave system comprising at least one memory element for storing data;
• and
• at least one processor for executing instructions associated with the data, wherein executing the instructions causes the proxy slave system to perform operations, comprising:
• receiving, from the radio equipment controller, a first CPRI bit stream transmitted at a first plurality of link bit rates at respective transmit time intervals;
• attempting to decode, at the proxy slave system, the first CPRI bit stream at a second plurality of link bit rates at respective reception time intervals;
• on achieving hyper frame number synchronization (HFNSync) at a first link bit rate of the second plurality of link bit rates, mapping the first CPRI bit stream to one or more Radio over Ethernet (RoE) frames, wherein at least one of the one or more RoE frames comprises a header indicating the first link bit rate;
• transmitting the one or more RoE frames to the proxy master;
• on receiving one or more RoE frames from the proxy master, wherein the one or more RoE frames received from the proxy master comprise a second CPRI bit stream transmitted by the radio equipment:
• de-mapping the one or more RoE frames received from the proxy master;
• and
• transmitting the second CPRI bit stream to the radio equipment controller at the first link bit rate;
• and
• upon HFNSync being achieved between the proxy slave system and the radio equipment controller using the first link bit rate, establishing the CPRI link using the first link bit rate.

One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media encoded with instructions for a proxy slave in a fronthaul network environment comprising a radio equipment controller connected to the proxy slave, a proxy master connected to a radio equipment, and a fronthaul Ethernet network connecting the proxy master and the proxy slave, and for establishing a Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) link between the radio equipment controller and the radio equipment over the fronthaul Ethernet network;

• the instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
• receiving, at the proxy slave from the radio equipment controller, a first CPRI bit stream transmitted at a first plurality of link bit rates at respective transmit time intervals;
• attempting to decode, at the proxy slave, the first CPRI bit stream at a second plurality of link bit rates at respective reception time intervals;
• on achieving hyper frame number synchronization (HFNSync) at a first link bit rate of the second plurality of link bit rates, mapping the first CPRI bit stream to one or more Radio over Ethernet (RoE) frames, wherein at least one of the one or more RoE frames comprises a header indicating the first link bit rate;
• transmitting the one or more RoE frames to the proxy master;
• on receiving one or more RoE frames from the proxy master, wherein the one or more RoE frames received from the proxy master comprise a second CPRI bit stream transmitted by the radio equipment:
• de-mapping the one or more RoE frames received from the proxy master;
• and
• transmitting the second CPRI bit stream to the radio equipment controller at the first link bit rate;
• and
• upon HFNSync being achieved between the proxy slave and the radio equipment controller using the first link bit rate, establishing the CPRI link using the first link bit rate.