Radio access network splits for reduced radio unit complexity

A method, comprising:

• obtaining, by a distributed unit comprising at least one processor, demodulation reference signal data from a radio unit;
• determining, by the distributed unit based on the demodulation reference signal data, beamforming weight data;
• communicating, by the distributed unit, the beamforming weight data to the radio unit;
• obtaining, by the distributed unit from the radio unit in response to the communicating of the beamforming weight data, beamformed spatial stream data;
• and
• prior to obtaining the demodulation reference signal data from the radio unit, communicating, by the distributed unit, to the radio unit, message data that indicates which demodulation reference signal data is to be communicated as non-beamformed demodulation reference signal data.

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

• extracting demodulation reference signal data and resource element data based on a received user equipment communication;
• obtaining message data from a distributed unit that indicates which demodulation reference signal data is to be communicated as non-beamformed demodulation reference signal data,
• communicating the demodulation reference signal data and the resource element data to the distributed unit, wherein none or only part of the demodulation reference signal data or the resource element data are beamformed prior to the communicating;
• obtaining, in response to the communicating of the demodulation reference signal data, beamforming weight data based on at least one of:
• channel estimation data, or beamforming coefficient data;
• beamforming spatial stream data based on the beamforming weight data;
• and
• communicating the spatial stream data to the distributed unit.