  Centralized/Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) comes into prominence to
reduce the rising energy consumptions and maintenance difficulties of the
next-generation networks. However, C-RAN has strict delay requirements, and it
needs large fronthaul bandwidth. Function splitting and Radio over Ethernet are
two promising approaches to reduce these drawbacks of the C-RAN architecture.
Meanwhile, the usage of renewable energy sources (RESs) in a C-RAN boosts the
energy-efficiency potential of this network. In this paper, we propose a novel
model, which is called Green Radio OVer Ethernet (GROVE), that merges these
three approaches to maximize the benefits of C-RAN while maintaining the
economic feasibility of this architecture. We briefly explain this model and
formulate an operational expenditure minimization problem by considering the
several restrictions due to the network design and the service provisioning.
Then we linearize the quadratic routing decision constraints in the problem to
solve it with a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) solver. Results show
that it is cost-effective to choose routing, function splitting, and RES
decisions together. Our solution surpasses classical disjoint approaches for
all studied cases. Besides, we provide a network scalability analysis to
determine the MILP solver's limits for larger network topologies.
