Leveraging Packet Aggregation to Optimise QoS and Energy Trade-offs in 5G/6G Optical Fronthaul Networks

The growing demands of 5G and emerging 6G mobile networks—driven by the proliferation of IoT devices, immersive applications, and high-throughput services—necessitate more efficient and scalable fronthaul solutions. Open Radio Access Networks and cloud-RAN architectures offer promising frameworks by decoupling hardware and software and enabling centralised processing. However, the fronthaul segment still faces challenges related to bandwidth inefficiency, signalling overhead, and relatively high energy consumption, particularly due to the transmission of vast numbers of small packets. Packet aggregation emerges as a viable strategy to mitigate these challenges by grouping multiple small packets into larger payloads, thereby reducing protocol overhead, improving throughput efficiency, and lowering energy consumption in the network as a whole. This paper investigates the impact of packet aggregation on both quality of service (QoS) and energy efficiency in the fronthaul of 5G/6G mobile networks. While prior studies have examined its effects on throughput and latency, the implications for energy consumption remain underexplored. We evaluate how aggregation design parameters—such as time thresholds, size thresholds, and traffic intensity—influence performance metrics such as throughput and latency. We also propose ways to achieve an optimal trade-off between QoS and energy efficiency. Our findings offer insights into the design of energy-aware, delay-sensitive packet aggregation schemes tailored for next-generation mobile network architectures.