  This dissertation paper presents the main contributions to the design and the
implementation of a Cloud-RAN solution. We concretely address the two main
challenges of Cloud-RAN systems: real-time processing of radio signals and
reduced fronthaul capacity. We propose a multi-threading model to achieve
latency reduction of critical RAN functions as well as an adapted functional
split for optimizing the transmission of radio signals. We model the
performance of the proposed solution by means of stochastic service systems
which reflect the behavior of high performance computing architectures based on
parallel processing and yield dimensioning rules for the required computing
capacity. Finally, we validate the accuracy of the theoretical proposals by a
Cloud-RAN testbed implemented on the basis of open source solutions, namely
Open Air Interface (OAI).
