e of more TRPs in the system. The latter has an obvious impact on the system installation cost. Note that, depending on regulatory aspects, (maximum) RF output power can be limited, in our case to 30 dBm EIRP. RF propagation obviously limits the signal power that is conveyed from transmitter to receiver. Fig. 1-30 shows the RF propagation per standard 3GPP models. The propagation model can be used to predict the received signal power at the client by calculating the SNR at the receiver and comparing this against the required SNR for success- ful demodulation, even if the calculation is high level/rough and used only for initial dimen- sioning with refinements made later. The receiver-required SNR depends on the quality of 38 Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) Systems Architecture and Design Standard 3.5GHz Propagation Models Distance (meter) between Transmitter and Receiver Urban Micro Urban Micro Suburban Macro Urban Macro FIGURE 1-30 3GPP propagation model example. receiver implementation but is typically -5.5 dB for QPSK, 5-15 dB for 16QAM and 15-20 dB or better for 64QAM. The required signal level S is now computed as: S = noise figure (say, 5 dB) + thermal noise (-174 dBm/Hz + 10*LOG(used bandwidth)) + SNR. For example, for 10 MHz bandwidth and 20 dB required SNR for 64QAM decode: S = 5-174 + 70 + 20 = 79 dB. Given an assumed 30 dBm EIRP, the acceptable path loss is 30-(-79) = 109 dB or 100 dB when taking safety margin. Assuming a pessimistic propagation model, this is 20-m radius-or better when reducing safety margin, required signal strength, or advanced algorithmic support including CoMP. We take the 20 m radius to define the TRP count: with some safety margin added, each support 1000 m 2 Our 10,000 m 2 application use case implies an optimization point of 10-15 TRPs, assuming placement of TRPs will never be perfect. Next question is key: do we want to develop a CU/DU/RU deployment architecture? This implies higher bandwidth and more latency constrained fronthaul Ethernet and typically results in dedicated