Comparison of performance- and cost-optimal functional splits in 5G and beyond

Centralization in 5G radio access networks brings two main benefits: reducing cost and improving performance. Although an ideal, fully-centralized architecture would provide minimum cost and maximum performance, actual deployments cannot simultaneously optimize both. Previous research focuses on how to select the functional split of a 5G network to either maximize performance or minimize cost on partially-centralized architectures, without exploring which approach is the most appropriate. In this work, we investigate the trade-off between cost and performance of both approaches, in order to figure out which one is more adequate for real network operators. We provide a comprehensive study under a wide range of network conditions and show that, in general, a performance-maximizing approach is more likely to produce a higher net revenue.