CAMPBELL, CA--(Marketwired - December 11, 2014) - Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its new C-RAN Architecture Equipment Market Outlook report, which provides market size, share, forecasts, and analysis for centralized RAN (C-RAN) equipment, covering the migration from decomposed to C-RAN architectures including baseband units (BBUs) and remote radio heads (RRHs).

ANALYST NOTE
"Centralized RAN (C-RAN) is a reality, but very localized in two Asian countries, Japan and South Korea, which share much in common: absence of 2G, high density, fiber ubiquity, and a strong appetite for innovation," notes Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research

"If fiber is the barrier to C-RAN adoption in the West, wireless fronthaul is coming to the rescue," continues Téral. "But we have yet to see commercial deployments. Orange in Europe and Sprint in North America are in the driver's seat, and we expect to see adoption of C-RAN in these regions starting in 2015."

Adds Téral: "C-RAN is emerging as the default 5G architecture and will eventually morph into cloud RAN as more and more mobile network functions are virtualized."

C-RAN MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

• Site engineering and antenna site simplification lead to less and smaller equipment, lower power consumption, better radio performance, LTE-Advanced readiness, and agile and flexible network topologies, and these are the chief drivers of centralized RAN (C-RAN)

• The worldwide C-RAN architecture equipment market is forecast to top $10 billion by 2018, up from about $4 billion in 2012, fueled by RAN expansion in the West and the beginning of 5G rollouts in Japan and South Korea

• Baseband units (BBUs) account for 62% of overall C-RAN revenue, as they are the most expensive component of this type of architecture

• The top 3 vendors in the C-RAN market are, in alphabetical order, Ericsson, Nokia Networks, and Samsung

C-RAN REPORT SYNOPSIS
Infonetics' C-RAN architecture equipment market outlook provides worldwide and regional market size, vendor market share, forecasts through 2018, analysis, and trends for baseband unit (BBU) and remote radio head (RRH) centralized RAN (C-RAN) equipment revenue and units. It also includes a C-RAN Deployment Tracker that shows C-RAN announcements and major developments by region, country, service provider, and strategy. The report tracks C-RAN gear made by Eblink, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, NEC, Nokia Networks, Samsung, Solid, and ZTE. To buy the report, contact Infonetics: www.infonetics.com/contact.asp.