C-RAN Advanced: From a Network Cooperation Perspective

Future mobile networks in the sixth generation (6G) are poised for a paradigm shift from conventional communication services toward comprehensive information services, driving the evolution of radio access network (RAN) architectures toward enhanced cooperation, intelligence, and service orientation. Building upon the concept of centralized, collaborative, cloud, and clean RAN (C-RAN), this article proposes a novel cooperative, intelligent, and service-based RAN (CIS-RAN) architecture. Focusing on cooperation, CIS-RAN extends the traditional cooperative communication paradigm by further integrating cooperative sensing and cooperative artificial intelligence (AI). To improve both performance and effectiveness across diverse application scenarios, CIS-RAN enhances network cooperation throughout the entire process of acquisition, transmission, and processing, thereby enabling efficient information acquisition, diverse cooperative interactions, and intelligent fusion decision-making. Key technologies are discussed, with network cooperative multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) examined as a case study, demonstrating superior performance over traditional architectures, as demonstrated by numerical results. Future research directions are outlined, emphasizing the continued exploration and advancement of the CIS-RAN architecture, particularly in enhancing network cooperation.