# CAREER: Toward Efficient and Scalable Mobile Fronthaul Empowered by Analog Radio-over-Fiber

> **NSF 01002829DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT** · Duke University (NC) · $600,000

## Abstract

Over 100 trillion megabytes of data are currently consumed per year by mobile users in the U.S. alone. All this traffic is transported to users’ devices through cell sites (base stations) from the cloud. In a traditional cellular network, both the radio head and the baseband processing unit are located together at the cell site. In future radio access networks (RANs), the radio unit (RU) is located at the cell site while the processing unit is located at the distributed/centralized unit (DU/CU), which could be located in a metropolitan area. Fronthaul is a critical component of radio access networks (RANs), supporting the data transport between the RU and the DU/CU over a fiber optic network. Current mobile fronthaul employs digital radio-over-fiber (DRoF) technology based on digital interfaces such as the enhanced Common Public Radio Interface (eCPRI), which has a limited capacity and inefficient utilization of the underlying fiber networks. In contrast, analog radio-over-fiber (ARoF), which directly modulates radio frequency (RF) signals onto light for transmission over low-loss fibers at low latency, presents a promising approach for mobile fronthaul due to its high capacity and spectral efficiency, and the support of significantly simplified RU architecture. This project aims to enhance the efficiency and scalability of next-generation mobile networks by employing ARoF-based fronthaul. By moving away from the DRoF-based fronthaul approaches, ARoF-based fronthaul can facil

## Key facts

- **NSF award ID:** 2443137
- **Awardee organization:** Duke University (NC)
- **SAM.gov UEI:** TP7EK8DZV6N5
- **PI:** Tingjun Chen
- **Primary program:** 01002829DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
- **All programs:** CAREER-Faculty Erly Career Dev
- **Estimated total:** $600,000
- **Funds obligated:** $482,166
- **Transaction type:** Continuing Grant
- **Period:** 07/01/2025 → 06/30/2030

## Primary source

NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2443137

## Citation

> US National Science Foundation, Award 2443137, CAREER: Toward Efficient and Scalable Mobile Fronthaul Empowered by Analog Radio-over-Fiber. Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-08 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nsf/2443137. Licensed CC0.

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