Rethinking Fronthaul Topologies for Cell-Free 6G Networks

Max Franke; Arash Pourdamghani; Fabian Göttsch; Stefan Schmid; Giuseppe Caire

Rethinking Fronthaul Topologies for Cell-Free 6G Networks

Information Theory 2026-07-07 v1

Authors: Max Franke , Arash Pourdamghani , Fabian Göttsch , Stefan Schmid , Giuseppe Caire

Abstract

Due to significant progress in physical layer (PHY) technologies, future 6G networks are expected to feature much denser antenna deployments. Cell-free MIMO network designs are one of the most promising candidates to enable denser networks. While significant effort has been put into its PHY research, the challenges it brings to networking disciplines remain relatively unexplored. In this work, we propose various fronthaul network designs for cell-free MIMO. Our results show that while tree topologies may suffice for small-scale deployments, they become infeasible as the number of antennas increases. In contrast, with growing network size, the proposed Clos topology performs almost as well as the optimal topology.

Keywords

cell-free MIMO fronthaul topology 6G networks Clos topology antenna deployment network design

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.06288,
  title  = {Rethinking Fronthaul Topologies for Cell-Free 6G Networks},
  author = {Max Franke and Arash Pourdamghani and Fabian Göttsch and Stefan Schmid and Giuseppe Caire},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.06288},
  year   = {2026}
}