SELF-HEALING METHOD FOR FRONTHAUL COMMUNICATION FAILURES IN CASCADED CELL-FREE NETWORKS

A method performed by a CPU of a cascade cell-free massive MIMO network where APs are connected in a cascaded fronthaul chain to the CPU using a shared fronthaul bus. An AP at the end of the cascaded fronthaul chain is assigned as a last AP. Responsive to determining that fronthaul UL data is received by the CPU from the last AP, it is determined that the last AP is healthy. Responsive to fronthaul UL data not being received for a period of time, data addressed to the last AP is transmitted through DL broadcast structure of the shared fronthaul bus; Responsive to the ACK signal being received, it is determined that the last AP is healthy and responsive to the ACK signal not being received, it is determined that a fronthaul segment until the last AP is not healthy.