C-RAN Market Latest Innovations, Drivers, Dynamics And Strategic Analysis

Posted by Devanshu Shrivastava on February 25th, 2020

In 2018, the global cloud and centralized radio access network (C-RAN) market reached 6.3 million and is expected to generate ,159.2 million in 2024, witnessing a 15.9% CAGR during the forecast period (2019–2024). The market is growing due to the reduction in hardware costs, rising data traffic, and increasing penetration of 5G technology. C-RAN allows real-time virtualization and large-scale deployment in addition to providing collaborative radio technology support.

Moreover, C-RAN is a primary aspect for the growth of wireless technologies, such as 5G. When component is considered, the C-RAN market is categorized into services, infrastructure, and solution. The infrastructure category dominated the market during the historical period (2014–2018) and is further expected to account for the major share of the market during the forecast period. 

This is because of the rising investments in 5G and other technologies, such as 4G and LTE, by mobile operators. The category is further classified into fronthaul, baseband units (BBU), and remote radio units (RRU), among which, the BBUs classification held the largest share of the market during the historical period. On the basis of application, the C-RAN market is divided into targeted outdoor urban areas, suburban & rural areas, large public venues, and high-density urban areas. 

The large public venues application accounted for the largest share of the market during the historical period and is projected to retain its position during the forecast period. The targeted outdoor urban areas application is expected to grow at the fastest pace during the forecast period as these areas include commercial and residential spaces that created a large demand for C-RAN for transforming networks to 5G and LTE. A major trend being observed in the C-RAN market is the growing adoption of network virtualization technology. 

Enterprises around the globe are becoming more inclined toward virtualization in order to gain an edge over their competitors, primarily in terms of network capabilities. Network virtualization is being adopted by various financial organizations, cloud service providers, and enterprise data centers. In addition to this, both large and small organizations are also taking benefit of network virtualization for speed, efficiency, and scalability.

Thus, the market is growing due to the rising penetration of 5G technology and rapidly increasing data traffic.