RRH (Remote Radio Head)

A Remote Radio Head is the radio equipment installed at a cell site, typically mounted close to the antenna to minimise feeder losses. The RRH is connected to a centralised baseband unit over a fronthaul link (CPRI or eCPRI), forming the basis of Cloud RAN and many vRAN deployments. Fronthaul protection (MACsec or IPsec) is essential because some functional splits expose unciphered traffic.

Categories: Radio Access NetworkSecurity ControlsCloud and Virtualization

RRH in context

The radio access network is where mobile devices attach to the operator's infrastructure. Attacks in this layer include IMSI catching, rogue base stations and downgrade attacks; defenses rest on mutual authentication, integrity-protected signaling and Open RAN supply-chain hygiene.

Security controls span signaling firewalls (SS7/Diameter/GTP screening), transport encryption (IPsec, TLS, PRINS), identity and access on OSS/BSS, and monitoring at both packet and log level. Controls are audited against GSMA FS.11/FS.19/FS.20/FS.36.

To place RRH in the wider telecom-security picture, review Fronthaul, IGW, 1G, 2G, 6G and A5/0 — each entry cross-references back to this page so you can walk the topic in either direction.

Related terms

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