Current Distributed Radio Access Networks~(D-RANs), which are characterizedby a static configuration and deployment of Base Stations~(BSs), have exposedtheir limitations in handling the temporal and geographical fluctuations ofcapacity demands. At the same time, each BS's spectrum and computing resourcesare only used by the active users in the cell range, causing idle BSs in someareas/times and overloaded BSs in other areas/times. Recently, Cloud RadioAccess Network~(C-RAN) has been introduced as a new centralized paradigm forwireless cellular networks in which---through virtualization---the BSs arephysically decoupled into Virtual Base Stations~(VBSs) and Remote RadioHeads~(RRHs). In this paper, a novel elastic framework aimed at fullyexploiting the potential of C-RAN is proposed, which is able to adapt to thefluctuation in capacity demand while at the same time maximizing the energyefficiency and resource utilization. Simulation and testbed experiment resultsare presented to illustrate the performance gains of the proposed elasticsolution against the current static deployment.
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