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Main Authors: Erbayat, Egemen, Figueiredo, Gustavo B., Lin, Shih-Chun, Matsuura, Motoharu, Hasegawa, Hiroshi, Subramaniam, Suresh
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14480
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author Erbayat, Egemen
Figueiredo, Gustavo B.
Lin, Shih-Chun
Matsuura, Motoharu
Hasegawa, Hiroshi
Subramaniam, Suresh
author_facet Erbayat, Egemen
Figueiredo, Gustavo B.
Lin, Shih-Chun
Matsuura, Motoharu
Hasegawa, Hiroshi
Subramaniam, Suresh
contents As mobile networks transition toward 5G and 6G RAN architectures, Passive Optical Networks (PONs) offer a critical solution for cost-effective fronthaul transport. However, the lack of standardized evaluation models in current literature makes an objective comparison of diverse optimization strategies difficult. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a unified benchmarking framework that standardizes cost catalogs and deployment scenarios. We formulate the network design problem using Integer Linear Programming (ILP) to establish optimality bounds and evaluate three scalable heuristic strategies: a Genetic Algorithm, K-Means Clustering (KMC+), and a graph-based Randomized Successive Splitter Assignment (RSSA+) algorithm. Simulation results show that a time-limited ILP remains a strong reference point, even when optimality is not reached. Despite being rarely used in prior fronthaul planning studies, it consistently yields solutions superior to those produced by standard heuristic methods. Among scalable approaches, RSSA+ reliably attains near-ILP performance while ensuring feasibility across all evaluated scenarios, which underscores the importance of advanced, constraint-aware algorithmic designs over simpler heuristics. The complete benchmarking framework and datasets are publicly shared in [1].
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_14480
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A benchmarking framework for PON-based fronthaul network design
Erbayat, Egemen
Figueiredo, Gustavo B.
Lin, Shih-Chun
Matsuura, Motoharu
Hasegawa, Hiroshi
Subramaniam, Suresh
Networking and Internet Architecture
As mobile networks transition toward 5G and 6G RAN architectures, Passive Optical Networks (PONs) offer a critical solution for cost-effective fronthaul transport. However, the lack of standardized evaluation models in current literature makes an objective comparison of diverse optimization strategies difficult. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a unified benchmarking framework that standardizes cost catalogs and deployment scenarios. We formulate the network design problem using Integer Linear Programming (ILP) to establish optimality bounds and evaluate three scalable heuristic strategies: a Genetic Algorithm, K-Means Clustering (KMC+), and a graph-based Randomized Successive Splitter Assignment (RSSA+) algorithm. Simulation results show that a time-limited ILP remains a strong reference point, even when optimality is not reached. Despite being rarely used in prior fronthaul planning studies, it consistently yields solutions superior to those produced by standard heuristic methods. Among scalable approaches, RSSA+ reliably attains near-ILP performance while ensuring feasibility across all evaluated scenarios, which underscores the importance of advanced, constraint-aware algorithmic designs over simpler heuristics. The complete benchmarking framework and datasets are publicly shared in [1].
title A benchmarking framework for PON-based fronthaul network design
topic Networking and Internet Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14480