Guest Editorial: Enhanced Fronthaul for 5G and Beyond

In the radio access network (RAN) infrastructure, fronthaul links territorially disperse remote units (RUs) to distributed units (DUs) in regular or open RAN. With the fifth generation (5G) rollout worldwide and the active research on technologies beyond 5G, fronthaul has become a critical part of RAN to balance throughput, delay, reliability, and security. Based on a group of Tier 1 operators' insights on 5G deployment, a recent technology analysis report expects the 5G fronthaul transmission market to reach more than US$2 billion in revenue by 2024, almost triple the current rollout.